An Introduction to Environment-Related Conflicts and Initiatives for Their Prevention in the Southern African Region

An introduction to environment-related conflicts and initiatives for their prevention in the Southern African region

Figure 1: SADC People's Summit (Source: La Via Campesina)

A research project for the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung by Dr. Andrea Licata*

Contents

I. List of figures ...... 4 II. List of abbreviations ...... 5 III. Introduction ...... 7 IV. General background ...... 11 V. The regional context ...... 14 A. The SADC as a tool for cooperation, resources management and conflict prevention 15 B. Transboundary Natural Resource Management and Peace Parks ...... 19 C. Water resources management ...... 23 D. Diamonds ...... 27 E. Regulation as the key ...... 30 F. The future role of SADC ...... 31 VI. Selection of case studies and critical analysis of EJOLT ...... 32 A. An Introduction to EJOLT...... 32 B. The case of the Bisasar Road Landfill ...... 34 C. Acid mine drainage: Witwatersrand water catastrophe and the issue of the Green Paper ...... 36 VII. Military impact on the environment ...... 38 VIII. Other initiatives of conflict prevention and mediation ...... 40 IX. Conclusions ...... 43 X. Bibliography ...... 45 XI. Appendices ...... 51 A. Responses to questionnaire ...... 51 1. Farai Maguwu, doctoral student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society (email correspondence from April 6, 2015) ...... 51 2. Assane Juanga, Coordenador Executivo da UPC- Uniao Provincial de Camponeses de Cabo Delgado (email correspondence from March 3, 2015) ...... 51 B. Definitions ...... 54 C. General list of institutions working on environment related conflict prevention (UN Interagency Framework Team, 2012, pp. 87-90) ...... 56 D. Important institutions and think-tanks in Southern Africa (own research)...... 62 E. Complete list of environment-related conflicts in Southern Africa (source: EJOLT Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade website) ...... 69

F. Relevant activities of the region’s Ministries of Environment with regard to environment related conflict management ...... 72 1. Republic of Botswana, Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism ...... 72 2. Republic of Mauritius, Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development, and Disaster and Beach ...... 75 3. Republic of Namibia, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry ...... 78 4. Republic of Seychelles, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change ...... 79 5. South Africa, Environmental Affairs Department ...... 82 6. Kingdom of Swaziland, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs ...... 84 7. Zimbabwe, Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate ...... 86

I. List of figures

Figure 1: SADC People's Summit (Source: La Via Campesina) ...... 1

Figure 2: Southern Africa (Source: Public Domain) ...... 14

Figure 3: SADC Member States (Source: SADC) ...... 17

Figure 4: Peace Parks in 2001 (Source: World Wildlife Fund for Nature) ...... 22

Figure 5: Major River Basins in SADC (Source: SADC) ...... 26

Figure 6: Diamond Market (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica) ...... 29

Figure 7: EJOLT Map (Source: EJOLT) ...... 32

Figure 8: US military bases abroad, 2015 (Source: David Vine, Base Nation) ...... 38

II. List of abbreviations

ACCORD African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes

ACIRC African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises

AFD Agence Française de Développement

ANC African National Congress

ASF African Standby Force

BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

CANSA Cancer Association of South Africa

CCR Centre for Conflict Resolution

CDM Clean Development Mechanism

CERs Certified Emission Reduction units

CGIAR Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research

COP Conference of the Parties

CO2 carbon dioxide

EC European Commission

EJ Environmental Justice

EJOLT Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade

EMI Environmental Management Inspectorate

ESCOM Electricity Supply Commission

EU European Union

GHG Greenhouse Gas

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management

KP Kimberley Process

KTWSP Kunene Transboundary Water Supply Project

MPLA Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola

NEMA National Environmental Management Act

NGO non-governmental organisation

NRM natural resource management

OKACOM Okavango River Basin Water Commission

OPDSC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation

ORASECOM Orange-Senqu River Commission

REWS Regional Early Warning System

RWP Regional Water Policy

RWS Regional Water Strategy

SADC Southern African Development Community

SADCAT Southern African Development Community Administrative Tribunal

SADCC Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference

STARGO Strengthening Aquatic Resource Governance

TBNRM Transboundary Natural Resource Management

UK United Kingdom

UN United Nations

UNGA General Assembly of the United Nations

UNITA União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola

UNSC United Nations Security Council

US United States

USA United States of America

WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

ZIMOZA Zimbabwe-Mozambique-Zambia Transfrontier Park

III. Introduction

The intention of this paper is to provide information on the efforts and instruments in the field of environment-related conflict prevention and to study forms of networks and cooperation that could be interesting for the work of the Johannesburg office of the Rosa-Luxemburg- Stiftung. To do so, the research explores and describes initiatives at different levels (institutions, international organisations, civil society, etc.). In order to compare strategies, visions and results with regard to environment-related conflict prevention, the project holder analyses existing and potential conflicts in the Southern African region. The research relies on the available literature as well as on a map of conflicts developed by EJOLT, the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade, a global research project bringing science and society together to catalogue and analyse ecological distribution conflicts and confront environmental injustice1.

The project holder decided not to focus on the examples mentioned by partner organisations of Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, also because the feedback was little; the received results are included in the appendix of this paper as they still might be useful for the work of the foundation2. Following a general analysis, the project holder instead chose to describe two of the EJOLT cases more clearly, that he considers as particularly interesting for describing the local situation.

One of the findings of the analysis and the selected cases is their complementary in explaining the trends of the current economic model and its related effects. Land grabs and the activities of the mining sector are the most evident areas of conflict in the region. Noam Chomsky describes land grabbing as the new ‘great game’: “The Global Land Grab refers generally to the purchase of lands in the Global South for agricultural production for rich countries. It is part of a more general effort to take over the resources of the weaker and poorer societies and use them for the benefit of systems of power and domination. For people who have followed Occupy Wall Street, the Global Land Grab is not really on the radar of their immediate concerns, but can and should be” (Chomsky, 2014, p. 187).

1 See http://www.ejolt.org/ 2 See Appendix A 7

According to Chomsky, the processes around land grabbing go back centuries to the privatisation of commons – land, that is used and cared for by everyone – for mineral, agriculture, or energy resources. In line with this, the energy sector, the water distribution and the pollution are other relevant examples of conflict in the region, problems, which become all the more significant in times of climate change with its tremendous effects on nature and people. According to Greenpeace, climate change is a burden Africa cannot afford as local droughts already occur every year and continental crises at least once a decade (Bassey, 2012).

Overall, and considering the expected growth of population on the African continent, the African ecological and agricultural system – still largely depending on family farming – seem to be at a crossroad. According to Lorenzo Cotula, decisions and actions taken now will have major repercussions for the livelihoods of future generations. He is thereby not only referring to the growing commercialisation of local land relations as already mentioned above, but also to the intensification of agriculture which he both considers evitable: “Powerful forces are at play, but imaginative policy and practice could push agricultural development in a different direction” (Cotula, 2013, p. 192).

Considering, that conflict is generally neither exclusively positive nor negative, the project holder would at this point like to emphasize that the concept of conflict applied needs to be well described and defined3. If war has a negative value and a destructive impact, the conflict in terms of protest can be a tool for progress and freedom. In this regard, the introductory words of a recent paper (2012) by the United Nations Interagency Framework Team for Preventive Action are of interest:

“Managing conflicts that are related to natural resources is now more critical than ever before. As economic and population growth increase levels of global consumption, many countries face growing shortages of vital renewable resources such as freshwater, cropland, rangeland, forests, fisheries and other wildlife. Depletion of renewable natural resources, combined with environmental degradation and climate change, pose fundamental threats to human security. Separately or in combination with other factors, they can destabilize livelihoods, negatively affect ecosystems and undermine peace and development.

3 For a selection of definitions of environment-related conflict, see Appendix B. 8

Governments in developing countries, fragile states and emerging economies, are under increasing pressure to sustainably manage natural resources and resolve conflicts around their ownership, management, allocation and control.

Conflict itself is not a negative phenomenon; indeed, well-managed conflict can be an essential component of social change, democracy and development. However, where local and national institutions lack the capacity to resolve disputes over the degradation or depletion of natural resources, violent conflicts can and do emerge. It is therefore crucial that UN and EU development practitioners understand the key drivers of conflict over renewable resources and what specific role UN and EU policies, programmes and projects can play in the identification of conflict risks as well as entry points to prevent and manage conflicts through the use of sustainable natural resource management (NRM) practices” (UN Interagency Framework Team, 2012).

Bearing this in mind, the paper mentions some of the most relevant forms of preventive actions related to environment-related conflicts in the region as the initiatives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to analyse the ongoing efforts and instruments in the area of environment-related conflict prevention. Due to the complexity of this issue, the project holder believes that this topic could be elaborated further in the future because of the different existing points of view that also characterise the crucial debate on (in)sustainability at large.

The countries in the region in which the project holder found the highest number of environment-related conflicts are South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Every country would deserve its own deep analysis as well as many of the cases. A list of the conflicts and related initiatives is included in the appendix of this paper4. One important finding in this context is that the Southern Africa region features a relevant number of environment-related conflicts, but does not feature military interstate confrontations. Other than in African regions as Eastern Africa, the process of militarisation and e.g. the presence of foreign military bases is not so evident, but still deserves to be monitored in the future.

4 See Appendix E source EJOLT. 9

The paper also describes some forms of cooperation e.g. water management, Peace Parks and attempts of regulating the traffic of diamonds. These activities can only be seen as part of a greater transformation, which should be analysed further by the foundation with its mandate on political education. As stated by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), a “comprehensive transformation towards a low-carbon, sustainable society places great demands on the development, diffusion, legitimation and application of knowledge, and thereby also on the goals and form of research and research policies” (WBGU, 2011, p. 345).

IV. General background

The sustainability debate is one of the crucial challenges of our times. At the heart of it are the negative effects of human activity, namely climate change, pollution and resource depletion. One of the most significant characteristics of the present world is the interconnectedness of its current crises. In the world of today, a local crisis can easily become a continental or global emergency. Rebus sic stantibus, an economic crisis in one country may have relevant consequences for the economic system of a whole continent or even the world economy. An environmental crisis then, e.g. a nuclear accident in one country, as in Fukushima in 2011, puts a whole region or even the global environmental system in danger. A serious accident on an oil platform, as in Lousiana in 2010, has disastrous and lasting consequences for the ecosystem of a whole region. More than this, an ecological crisis can become an economic crisis, and vice versa. A financial crisis can directly lead to hunger as we have seen from the discussion on food speculation and food security (Chomsky N. , 2011).

All of this is – more than ever before – based on an economic model that is dependent on growth and continued and increased consumption. As such, it requires large amounts of energy and natural resources. The constant growth rates combined with a rapidly growing population put the ecological balance at stake: “A rapidly depleting resource base combined with an ever growing demand for energy and food creates a great challenge to the world of the 21st century” (Scheffran & Schilling, 2009, p. 1). Needless to say that this process is in total contrast to the idea of sustainable development as it was defined in the Brundtland Report: namely as a development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

One of the greatest challenges to sustainability today is the process of global warming that is already present in the shrinking of the Himalayan glaciers and the Arctic ice, the rise of the sea level, the progressive desertification, or the greater frequency of hurricanes. Despite these dramatic developments, the economic system has not fundamentally changed its problematic environmental practices (air, water and soil pollution, etc.) even though there is a consensus that these practices are a growing concern for the global environment today and in the future. This has led to a system that is chaotic and contradictory in its entirety, requesting growth and

De-growth at the same time, striving for emission reductions while extending the use of coal as an energy provider.

One of the possible consequences of this development is a rising concern about environment- related conflicts. On this very subject, Kofi Annan expressed the following already in 2001: “Fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future” (Carius, Dabelko, & Wolf, 2004, p. 1). These conflicts – as all other conflicts – would have multiple, long and short-term impacts on development and on environmental and human well-being. As the main cause of the conflict is environmental degradation itself, however, its impact on the environment and hence human well-being, could be all the more dramatic, and so will the long-term post conflict consequences (e.g. a relevant number of refugees, the destruction of infrastructure, the destruction of the economy).

That is why the question of a transition to a real sustainable development framework is a pressing one among institutional actors, civil society actors, businesses, as well as the broader academic community.5 In other words, peaceful sustainability transition is the conditio sine qua non for the continuation of all ongoing forms of human activity and cooperation. This transition to a sustainable future includes the effective prevention of possible destructive environment-related conflicts (for water, land and other resources, just to give some examples, but considering that a conflict is a complex issue that generally has several causes). Interdisciplinary scientific research can play a crucial role in understanding the problematic complexity of this process and developing mechanisms in support of sustainable transition processes.

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987 (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), the issue of sustainability has been broadly discussed. In the context of this debate, several studies and research groups have put the focus on the conflict dimension of environmental degradation.

On 17 April 2007, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a ground-breaking open debate at ministerial level on the relationship between energy, security and climate. As such, the meeting emphasised the need to reflect on the links between climate change and international security (Sindico, 2007, pp. 29-34). In 2008, the High Representative of the

5 The importance of a peaceful transition was already mentioned in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in Principles 24 to 26. See http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm. 12

European Union (EU) and the European Commission (EC) suggested, “climate change acts as a threat multiplier, worsening existing tensions in countries and regions which are already fragile and conflict-prone” (High Representative and the European Commission, 2008, p. 3). In 2009, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) requested a report on climate change and its potential security implications. In 2011, under the leadership of the German presidency, the UN Security Council debated the issue of climate change and its potential consequences for global peace and security for the first time since 2007. In the first-ever statement adopted by the Security Council on the issue, the UN Secretary-General and UN organisations were called upon to devote more attention to the link between climate change and security in their work and to report to the Security Council on the issue.6 With it came a “securitisation” of the climate debate (Scheffran & Battaglini, 2011, pp. 27-39) and the debate on human security and violent conflict in the context of climate change (Scheffran, Broszka, Brauch, Link, & Schilling, 2012).

Recently, various research groups, institutes and organisations (e.g. the UN and the UNU-ISP University) have been organising programmes, conferences and scientific publications on the issue of “Sustainable Peace” and “Sustainability Transition”.

The South African Government jumped on the sustainability train latest in 2014 when it launched a conference on “Sustainable Development at Mining Indaba” to discuss “successful ways of integrating social responsibility and sustainability into the corporate agenda”7. This case alone shows that the issue of sustainability is to be enjoyed with care as governments and corporations have long collected it. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to give up on the long-developed concept of sustainability; instead, it has to be made clear what the underlying intentions are.

6 Relevant UN documents: http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/climatechange/pages/gateway/documents. 7 See http://www.gov.za/debating-sustainable-development-mining-indaba%E2%84%A2. 13

V. The regional context

Figure 2: Southern Africa (Source: Public Domain)

At the turn of 21st century, academics and policymakers commonly felt the need for a change in approaches to conflict management. Virtually all the world’s major countries and international organisations have since then engaged in efforts to understand the underlying elements of the recurrence of war in impoverished areas of the world. The result has been a significant number of studies, strategy papers and initiatives with the goal of analysing and devising new strategies that would move beyond mere crisis or post-crisis management approaches.

This impetus, however, lacked operative coordination among the international actors involved as well as conceptual consensus and clarity. In fact, national and international efforts largely rested on grand approaches and overarching but simplistic understanding of issues such as poverty, underdevelopment, greed and arms proliferation that could indistinctly be applied to conflicts throughout the world. Widespread confusion over root-causes of conflict and prolonging factors contributed to the unclear situation. Not surprisingly, strategies and action plans originating from these assumptions often proved unable to grasp the underlying traits

14 of conflict thus producing mostly ineffective solutions, incapable of tackling causes and consequences.

Generic and flawed as they might be, these approaches eventually led to some results in placing competition over natural resources as a recurrent variable of instable regions (together with others such as weak statehood, economic grievances, and corruption). As a result, the issue of environment and natural resources management became to appear and was discussed in institutional venues (Mehler & Mahnke, 2005).

In the Southern African region, the end of Apartheid, Angolan Civil War and a wave of democratic transitions “has helped decrease the likelihood of large-scale civil war and cross- border conflict” (DAI, 2015, p. 27). Yet the region remains fragile, as unsteady development and environmental issues threaten to destabilise the peaceful equilibrium. Regional integration is at an early stage and countries - whose borders still bear the legacy of the colonial past - remain largely self-reliant when it comes to matters of national security. Nevertheless, a number of initiatives have been deployed, over the last 20 years, with the goal of achieving environmental peace. In this chapter, these initiatives will be illustrated and briefly analysed.

A. The SADC as a tool for cooperation, resources management and conflict prevention

Created in 1992 upon the foundations of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) the SADC8 is an intergovernmental organisation for regional cooperation that currently comprises 15 countries. Its stated goals include:

“to achieve development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration. These objectives are to be achieved through increased regional integration, built on democratic principles, and equitable and sustainable development” (SADC, 2012).

8 See Figure 1, p. 14. 15

As part of SADC’s commitment towards creating a peaceful environment that fosters regional development, a number of tools have been developed overtime for conflict prevention purposes. One of the most “successful” is the Regional Early Warning System (REWS). Operating in coordination with the National Early Warning Centres based in SADC member states9 the REWS has been used on some occasions to prevent major crises and potentially violent situations caused by environmental disasters, such as droughts and famines (Chopak, 1998). In 1991 to 1992, in what can be considered as a milestone success of cooperation and effectiveness, the REWS helped national governments face a vast drought that was threatening the livelihoods of the whole region. Weather forecasts and detailed information about food availability provided by the REWS allowed the member states to devise response plans and establish emergency food supply lines that helped contain the crisis (Rook, 1997).

In the early 2000s, calls for further regionalisation of crisis management structures have led the member states to come up with a series of recommendations and initiatives. Because of these demands, the Regional Early Warning Centre was created in July 2010 in an attempt to strengthen the REWS’s activity (AIM News, 2010). By working closely with National Early Warning Centres, the REWS should be able to collect and share information “on threats, to security and stability of the region and [propose] ways to deal with such threats” (EEAS, 2014, p. 5).

9 See Figure 2, p. 17. 16

Figure 3: SADC Member States (Source: SADC)

Being a body for regional cooperation, the SADC has also played a role in the context of shared management of natural resources. Indeed, by providing a venue for dialogue, the SADC has facilitated the creation of multilateral projects on potentially contested areas, in particular watercourses and natural parks running along state borders (see sections below for a more detailed analysis).

Yet, despite the good intentions and some early successes obtained through the REWS the SADC is still far from providing fully-fledged solutions for conflict prevention. Indeed, SADC member states’ approach to stability is still largely based on state-centric calculations. In other words, cooperation programmes have not succeeded in converging member states’ interests towards gradual integration as perceptions of national security are still solidly individualistic. Cooperation for the sake of regional peace often finds itself stuck on lowest common denominator and agreements are reached only when they satisfy win-win expectations. As one analyst has put it, “SADC is a stable (but not very efficient) institution, (mis)used by its members to serve disparate demands of national interest and sovereignty” (van Nieuwkerk, 2013, p. 51). Meanwhile, SADC’s fairly sophisticated institutional architecture - replete with committees and boards - actually conceals a record of poor implementation and scarce 17 political commitment from the member states (van Nieuwkerk, 2013). In 2001 the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (OPDSC) was formally established to “promote peace and security in the region” (SADC, 2001; Bam, 2006). Yet, more than 10 years after its inception, the OPDSC is constrained by an “absolute sense” of sovereignty that valorises state- centrism and principles of non-interference in internal matters. This is symbolised by its decision-making mechanism, still based on consensus, which leaves member states the power to veto any resolution (Solomon, 2012, p. 26).

Similarly, efforts to build an efficient regional peacekeeping force are still at the testing ground, held back by political rivalries, technical and financial shortages as well as poor political commitment. At the time of writing, the two main projects in this realm, the African Standby Force (ASF) and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC) proceed slowly and depend on significant European support (Fabricius, 2015).

In 2011, the process of regional integration suffered a major setback when, in an unprecedented and heavily criticised move, member states decided for the suspension of the SADC Tribunal, the only regional body with dispute-settlement powers. A series of rulings against Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform thus proved fatal to an institution, already beleaguered by a widespread lack of political support from the member states. As of 2015, after four years of negotiations and numerous appeals for its reactivation, the SADC Tribunal is currently set to be replaced by a new body, the Southern African Development Community Administrative Tribunal (SADCAT). Compared to its predecessor, the SADCAT will however have a reduced scope, as only national governments will be entitled to resort to it. With the de facto exclusion of non-state actors, namely individuals and NGOs, the SADCAT signals a step back in the establishment of a supranational mechanism of dispute settlement (Financial Gazette, 2015).

To conclude, although SADC architecture and experiences such as the REWS give reasons to forecast growing cooperation. Nevertheless, SADC’s conflict prevention potential has yet to undergo a significant stress test. For the time being, SADC incapability to override national policies makes it just a little more than a venue for traditional diplomatic activity and sectorial cooperation in which every member state retains the last word on security matters. The suspension of the SADC Tribunal provides a striking example of how the SADC still lacks the degree of autonomy that would allow it to become a fully-fledged supranational and

18 recognised body, ready to act as a counterbalancing force vis-a-vis the national interests of the member states. Finally yet importantly, the horizontal solidarity among the heads of state and ruling elites as well as the vertical inaccessibility for grassroots organisations and regular citizens are turning the SADC into something that resembles more and more a “club of presidents” rather than a tool for regional development and conflict prevention (du Pisani, 2011, p. 40).

B. Transboundary Natural Resource Management and Peace Parks

The rather stable political environment that followed the end of the Apartheid and the Angolan War has encouraged many Southern African states to increasingly devote equipment, personnel and financial resources from military purposes to environmental preservation initiatives (Swatuk, 2005).

The idea of coupling wildlife conservation with conflict prevention has inspired the creation of a series of transboundary cooperation mechanisms, technically known as Transboundary Natural Resource Management (TBNRM) systems.

“TBNRM can take several different forms: from transfrontier conservation areas to spatial development initiatives; from formal interstate arrangements regarding particular shared resources, such as watercourses, to loosely articulated “smart partnerships” involving donors, NGOs, private companies, and local government” (Swatuk, 2005, p. 1).

With provisions that generally include joint management of natural areas and removal of border fences TBNRM projects have been praised as an opportunity to foster multilateral cooperation and regional integration (Swatuk, 2005, p. 3; van Amerom & Büscher, 2005, p. 8). Among the different solutions developed under the framework of TBNRM, the so-called “Peace Parks”10 are perhaps the best known.

Throughout the 1990s, the Peace Parks philosophy generated widespread enthusiasm and support. In the plans of the promoters, the shared-management approach of wild areas would bring the bordering countries closer whilst helping defuse tensions and creating a fertile

10 See Figure 3, p. 22. 19 ground for tourism and economic development. So popular became the idea that it quickly garnered the endorsement of a number of prominent economic and political actors (Nelson Mandela, to name just one of them) who saw in Peace Parks a win-win strategy to solve many of the region’s problems.

Relevant examples of Peace Parks include the Maloti Drakensberg Transboundary World Heritage Site, on the Lesotho-South Africa border, the Great Limpopo Park, on the South Africa-Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, the Zimbabwe-Mozambique-Zambia Transfrontier Park (ZIMOZA) and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park between South Africa and Botswana. The underlying concept maintains that “by fostering joint conservation (and tourism) development in Southern Africa’s marginalised border regions, Peace Parks [will] further international peace, regional cooperation and poverty reduction” (van Amerom & Büscher, 2005, p. 1).

Despite these enthusiastic claims, scholarly researches have revealed that Peace Parks often failed to meet the expectations and, in some cases, even proved detrimental to regional stability. As happened in the case of Great Limpopo Park, instead of bringing countries closer to each other, disagreements over the distribution of economic benefits have generated tensions among the parties involved (van Amerom & Büscher, 2005, p. 12). Countries with a longer tradition of tourism and wildlife conservation, such as South Africa, have shown to be more capable than others of reaping the economic gains of growing ecotourism and investments. This aspect has fuelled a sense of inequality and envy among partner states (van Amerom & Büscher, 2005).

But unbalances do not simply develop in intrastate relations. The management of these projects very often lies firmly in the hands of an elite of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, who have often shown little or no interest in including grassroots stakeholders. Local communities are only very rarely consulted and included in the creation of the rules that affect them the most. The positive effects of Peace Parks on local economy do not often go far beyond a slight increase in income and jobs, whereas the livelihoods of the people living in these areas are potentially affected by decisions agreed in ministerial venues that occurred miles away. As a result, this mainly top-down approach has led to an increase in divisions and disputes as well as discontent and hostility towards TBNRM programmes (Schoon, 2004, p. 18).

In a controversial, recent case the government of Botswana has announced the selling of shale-gas fracking rights in the Kgagaladi trans-frontier park, to the consternation of a significant number of local actors, including environmentalists, civil society activists, tourism managers and even park officials, who were not even informed of the decision. According to international press sources, the fracking rights – secretly sold back in September 2014 to a UK- based private company – will comprise more than half of the park area, which is home to a great number of wild species as well as a touristic destination (Guardian, 2015, 2 December). This case provides a clear example of the governments’ often uncompromising attitude towards shared resource management and threatens to set a dangerous precedent for similar areas in the region.

Expectations over Peace Parks as a drive for cross-border mobility that could challenge colonial borders and reunite historically linked populations were also frustrated. National interests of geopolitical and internal order proved way too crystallised to be transcended, resulting in selective and restricted transboundary mobility. In the case of the Great Limpopo Park, for instance, concerns of national security related to the control of the so-called “illegal migration” and smuggling have led police forces and security circles to resist plans to remove border fences. As a result, “improved cross-border access for people at the moment mainly focuses on the needs of international tourists, [while] local people are not allowed to cross the international boundaries” (van Amerom & Büscher, 2005, p. 15) Forced to yield before superior interests, local communities could not reap the benefits generated by transboundary cooperation.

Figure 4: Peace Parks in 2001 (Source: World Wildlife Fund for Nature)

C. Water resources management

Water is possibly the most important of all natural resources. Human development largely relies on constant water supply, as its uses include crucial sectors like agriculture, nutrition, industry and energy. It then comes as no surprise that water is increasingly being included in geopolitical discourses as a variable for regional (in)stability.

Disputes over access to water resources have the potential to exacerbate regional rivalries and ignite dangerous transboundary confrontations. At the same time, water-related disasters such as droughts or floods – and mass-migrations usually provoked by these events – threaten to further destabilise already weakened communities. Unbalances in the distribution of water also fuel disputes between upstream and downstream countries with the latter usually finding themselves in a situation of geographical disadvantage. Human population growth, mass migrations, advancing urbanisation, pollution, and climate change are among the factors that come into play and often present a matter of concern for international organisations operating in the field. These factors combine with the relatively fragile nature of some of states in the area, an aspect that further increases the probability of political crisis in case of environmental shocks.

As in the case of TBNRM, besides the international domain, conflict can also develop domestically. This usually happens when the state monopolises the management of water related issues, whilst excluding those local communities that are mostly affected by it. Lack of public inclusion into decision-making and faulty consultation processes may result in discontent and tension between the central government and local constituencies. Ultimately, the local domain provides a further variable for armed confrontation, which conflict prevention initiatives need to take into account (Trondalen, 2011).

The SADC has played an important role in the domain of so-called Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by providing the institutional framework required for binding the member states together towards cooperation. Already in the 1990s, a number of transboundary cooperation programmes were indeed established under the SADC’s umbrella. In 2000, SADC member states agreed to sign the Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems and a revised version of the protocol came into force in 2003 to meet the standards outlined in the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourse.

The new protocol promoted a renewed approach, which included principles of environmental protection and preservation (Couzens, 2014). In the mid-2000s, these principles were repeated in the SADC Regional Water Policy (RWP) and the SADC Regional Water Strategy (RWS). Notably, both the RWP and the RWS also stressed the importance of participation and shared decision-making as crucial elements for conflict prevention (Malzbender, et al., 2010).

Quite interestingly, many water management cooperation programmes have received support from the Western governments in the form of funding, institutional strengthening and project management. Once acknowledged the water-security nexus and the equation that links conflict prevention with the need to create a functioning institutional framework for international cooperation the SADC and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) have promoted a series of initiatives to boost water management cooperation in the Southern Africa region. A relevant example is the cooperation project in the Orange-Senqu River basin (ORASECOM), involving Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia, which also drew the support of France, Netherlands and the EU. Another one is the Kunene Transboundary Water Supply Project (KTWSP), between Angola and Namibia, which once again sees the contribution of the BMZ, with further support provided by the British and Australian governments. The goal of these initiatives is to establish a solid environment for dialogue and coordination among riparian countries and, as such, to prevent tensions over water resources. Particular attention is dedicated to raising awareness among local governments about the short and long-term socioeconomic benefits of cooperation and resource sharing, as opposed to the costs of armed engagement (Trondalen, 2011; GIZ Transboundary Water Management in SADC, 2015).

Whilst it is commonly believed that scarcity of water resources does not yet pose an immediate threat to regional stability, transboundary disputes might strain bilateral relations and, as such, contribute negatively to already conflictual situations. As demand for water is expected to increase due to population growth and climate change, the SADC-BMZ initiative aims at providing a platform for dialogue, de-escalation and fair resource management. In the mind of the stakeholders, a cooperative and peaceful environment would also lead to growing investments and faster development, thus shoring up economic stability. At the same time, the reduced need for military spending would encourage governments to reinvest these financial resources in infrastructures and programmes of socioeconomic assistance to the

24 local populations. Having recognised the importance of transcending the limitations connected with a solely state-centric approach, the SADC-BMZ initiative also directed efforts towards promoting the inclusion of local communities (Trondalen, 2011).

Other relevant initiatives in this realm include the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM). Signed in 1994 by Angola, Botswana and Namibia, the agreement established a platform for cooperation, coordination and information sharing. This agreement received a special impetus in the early 2000s with the end of the Angolan Civil War in 2002 and the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses in 2003, which provided the political environment and the legal stand for further development (Malzbender, et al., 2010).

More recently, in 2013, the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) – an ad-hoc umbrella organisation comprising various international actors – launched the Strengthening Aquatic Resource Governance (STARGO) initiative in an effort to foster co- management of water and fisheries in the Lake Kariba area in southern Zambia. The STARGO’s approach stresses the importance of fostering local ownership and legitimacy through the inclusion of all the actors involved. Indeed, STARGO’s action drew upon earlier attempts by the Zambian authorities to harmonise and regulate competition over Lake Kariba resources. Despite being an important step forward, these initiatives had initially proved unsatisfactory as they lacked a dispute settlement mechanism and left imbalances of power among local stakeholders substantially unchallenged. STARGO’s dialogue-driven approach has helped local communities and national government to overcome these institutional hurdles by bringing together all the actors involved. In particular, efforts aimed at strengthening the role of local communities and underrepresented actors, such as poorer residents and artisanal fishers. As a result, tensions diminished and cases of disputes fell in numbers (Madzudzo, et al., 2014).

Since the early 2000s, also the World Bank has brought up the issue of natural resources whilst engaging in a number of projects aimed at enhancing regional cooperation on their management. In Southern Africa, the most recent examples include the 2014 Lesotho Highlands - Botswana Water Transfer and the 2015 Zambezi River Basin Management Project (in cooperation with SADC), in an area that in the past has provided hot spots for conflictual interposition (Ashton, 2007).

Figure 5: Major River Basins in SADC (Source: SADC)

All the above-mentioned initiatives have set a relatively successful precedent for peaceful cooperation on water resources. The importance of water for the livelihoods as well as its vast agricultural and industrial uses has, on many occasions, motivated riparian countries to coordinate efforts and establish institutional frameworks for cooperation.

Although a reason for concern, water scarcity has not yet proven to be a major variable of political tension in the area and “empirical evidence [seems to indicate] that the likelihood of disputes between states over access to water is low” (Ashton & Turton, 2005, p. 20). This potentially has a two-fold implication; whilst it makes cooperation a feasible goal, as countries do not perceive power-sharing on water resources as a jeopardising move for national security, it also means that any achievement in conflict prevention might easily be nullified as conflict can more easily originate from factors unrelated to water management. Similarly:

“The success or failure of these international water-sharing arrangements depends largely on the degree of political will exerted by each country and their awareness of the potential benefits that could accrue to the participating countries” (Ashton & Turton, 2005, p. 18). 26

The role of SADC and international partners has proved important in strengthening these efforts and supplying technical guidance and financial help. The SADC in particular has provided a legal framework and a political background for coordination from which regional IWRM projects have occasionally benefitted. However, the disbandment of an important, supranational dispute settlement mechanism like the SADC Tribunal highlighted how quickly multilateral cooperation can be reverted when confronted with contrasting state-centric political interests (Couzens, 2014). At the same time, the realm of water management provides a practical example of the very limited scope of the newly established SADCAT. After decades of cyclical episodes of tension, the long-lasting Lake Malawi border dispute between Malawi and Tanzania reached a new impetus when, in 2012 Malawi announced its decision to conduct oil explorations thus prompting the protests from the Tanzanian government. SADC Chairperson Lt General Seretse Khama Ian Khama as recently as August 2015 ruled out the possibility that the new tribunal would be able to intervene in the case as “it falls outside its mandate” (Nyasa Times, 2015). As a result, the issue is still being dealt with through difficult diplomatic initiatives and the mediation of officials from Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique (Coastweek, 2015). The lack of a regional body for dispute settlement is likely to force the two parties to resort to the International Court of Justice (Lalbahadur, 2013; World Politics Review, 2014).

D. Diamonds

Of all the natural resources, whose extraction and trade has been linked to conflict in the Southern African region, diamonds are probably the one that attracted the greatest attention from the Western public. In this regard, the Angolan Civil War (1975 to 2002), pitting the communist Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) against the anti-communist União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), possibly provides the most revealing case of how illegal trade of diamonds can help fuel a conflict by financing the belligerents’ war efforts.

Controlling 60 to 70 per cent of Angola’s diamond production UNITA forces largely benefitted from trading diamonds with various international partners and continued to do so even after a UN Security Council Resolution introduced in 1998 imposed an embargo on all the Angolan

27 diamonds not approved by the (MPLA-controlled) Angolan government. However, the nearly impossible task of determining the origin of diamonds, trade triangulations with bordering countries and the poor commitment displayed by the stakeholders (in particular some Western and African states as well as major multinational corporations) towards international obligations allowed UNITA to circumvent the embargo and continue financing its military operations.

The example of the Angolan civil war reveals a scenario that stretches well beyond the regional boundaries. Given the scale of diamonds trade and the strong interests behind it, any successful conflict prevention initiative aimed at cutting the link diamonds-conflict cannot forgo international venues and requires exceptionally strong multilateral efforts (Global Witness, 1998). It is to meet these challenges that the most relevant stakeholders (including producing countries, private companies and non-governmental organisations [NGOs]) finally agreed, in 2000, to meet in Kimberley, South Africa and discuss a common solution to the problem of ‘blood diamonds’. After three years of negotiations, a certification scheme was introduced in order to track the diamonds’ international supply chain and prevent blood gems from entering the international market (Grant, 2012).

Despite being a rather promising step forward in the fight against diamond-fuelled conflicts, problems of implementation threatened the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process (KP) from its inception. Blood diamonds still kept reaching international markets thanks to triangulations with nearby, war-free countries and the complicity of corrupted officials and companies. Keen to show political commitment towards the issue - at least rhetorically - both producing countries and diamonds industry have too often failed to enforce controls on illegal flows (Global Witness, 2006).

Another problem lies in the definition of ‘conflict diamonds’11. The KP defines as ‘conflict diamonds’ only those used to fuel insurgency in war-ridden countries. As a result, no ban is in place for diamonds coming from countries technically not at war but marred by state violence (Moore, 2011). The most obvious example is the case of the Marange diamond fields, in Zimbabwe, scene of a brutal government crackdown that in 2008 left hundreds of “illegal miners” dead (Global Witness, 2011). Despite the media outcry, a series of EU sanctions and

11 See Figure 5, p. 29. 28 harsh criticism from various NGOs, KP members refused to suspend Zimbabwe from the Process. Instead, an ad-hoc working group was established to monitor the situation at Marange and Harare’s compliance with KP regulations. However, in 2010, the working group concluded that Marange diamonds could not be considered “conflict diamonds” since no rebel group was using them to fuel armed uprisings against legitimate governments. As such, the government of Zimbabwe was not in breach of the KP’s rules (The Wall Street Journal, 2010). Eventually, in 2013 the EU lifted the sanctions on diamonds mined at Marange, which could then freely reach European markets (EU Observer, 2013).

Figure 6: Diamond Market (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)

The example of Marange diamond fields exposed the tight legal boundaries within which the principles and provisions of the KP actually operate, resulting in limited operational efficiency. It also revealed the lack of an independent oversight as verification is still autonomously carried out by KP member states and thus relies on their voluntary compliance.

Meanwhile, calls for an upgrade of the KP towards more strict regulations and greater transparency went unheeded. Frustrated by these events, in December 2011 Global Witness, KP’s founding member and influential watchdog, quit the Process citing KP’s continued “refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny” (Global Witness, 2011, p. 5).

E. Regulation as the key

The common management of natural resources is tightly intertwined with an enhanced regional peace. When compared to other parts of the continent, Southern Africa has maintained a relatively stable and peaceful setting. As a result, various initiatives could be introduced over the past 20 years with the goal of shoring up the peaceful situation of the region. In particular, countries have agreed to cooperate on the management of watercourses and natural areas and they very often did so under the framework of the SADC, the most important institution for regional cooperation and integration in Southern Africa. However, doubts remain as to whether SADC’s institutional structure will actually suffice to defuse conflictual situations whenever they will arise. At the same time, cases of unequal power sharing and unbalances in the distribution of benefits have undermined the efficiency of cross- border projects. In particular, the exclusion or marginalisation of local communities from decision-making processes has contributed to an increase of the internal tensions, with conflicts more likely to arise within states rather than among states. More recent projects seem to have learned this lesson and now tend to give more space to grassroots actors, especially in the realm of water management.

Despite the number of bi- or even trilateral border projects being relatively high Southern African countries still have to go a long way in the creation of a regional identity that will help them overcome their selfishness and state-centric culture. So far, states have been keen on working together only when they envisaged win-win scenarios and when core national interests were not put into question. The lack of a strong supranational agent leaves cooperation efforts largely in the realm of bi- or multilateral agreements. Indeed, SADC member states have shown unwillingness to give up too much authority – in the realm of security – to any external body and whenever conflictual situations arise, they tend to resort

30 to traditional diplomatic initiatives, as the recent Malawi-Tanzania dispute demonstrates. In this sense, the suspension of the SADC Tribunal and its reintroduction as a purely administrative body signals a step back in the creation of a supranational justice system and threatens to widen the rift not only between countries but also between ruling elites and the wider populations.

Ultimately, the core issue seems to rest in the difficulty of making states lay down and follow a common and binding set of rules. That is, the creation of an autonomous body that guarantees the implementation of the regulations. A problem, which has also been observed, although on an international rather than regional scale, in the case of the KP.

F. The future role of SADC

Doubts remain as to whether the institutional structure of the SADC will suffice to defuse conflictual situations when they will arise. The region still has to go a long way in the reinforcement of cooperation that will help member states to overcome the most dangerous of state-centric politics. At the same time, the suspension of the SADC Tribunal and its reintroduction as a purely administrative body signals a step back in the creation of a multilevel regional justice system and threatens to widen the rift between elites and wider populations. Consequently, conflicts are potentially more likely to arise within states rather than among states. By the same virtue, TBNRM projects, such as Peace Parks and shared watercourse areas, present the same issue.

To conclude, management difficulties and unbalances in the distribution of benefits have prevented TBNRM projects from becoming an effective tool for regional conflict prevention and peaceful regional integration. The mainly top-down approach adopted by national governments also meant that local communities would largely be left out of decision-making process, thus leading to an increase in divisions and disputes, and as such, threatening the sustainability and robustness of TBNRM programmes (Schoon M. L., 2004).

VI. Selection of case studies and critical analysis of EJOLT

Figure 7: EJOLT Map (Source: EJOLT)

A. An Introduction to EJOLT

In the search for case studies, the project holder reverted to the maps of EJOLT12. In their own battles and strategy meetings since the early 1980s, EJOLT and its networks have introduced several concepts to political ecology that have also been taken up by academics and policy makers. On their own, or sometimes with the help of sympathetic academics, EJOLT has introduced or adopted powerful concepts and principles to analyse and to cope with environmental conflicts. They have produced a “political ecology from the bottom up” (Martinez et al, 2014, p. 20).

EJOLT’s analysis and strategies have been based on four concepts: the concept of Environmental Justice (EJ) born (in its sociological usage) in the United States (US), in struggles

12 See Figure 6, p. 32. 32 against waste dumping in North Carolina in 1982. Authors such as Robert Bullard, one of the pioneering scholars and activists in the environmental justice movement13, civil rights activists with no academic affiliation and members of Christian churches saw themselves as “militants of environmental justice” before a large assembly in Washington, D.C., proclaimed the principles of Environmental Justice in 1991. The second is a concept called popular epidemiology, which was relevant in many struggles inside and outside the US. It fits with the “post-normal science” approach, which has been influential in ecological economics (Funtowicz, 1993). Since the late 1980s, EJOLT has also started using the term “environmentalism of the poor” in activist interventions by poor and / or indigenous people’s struggling to defend their livelihoods against resource extraction. As the word “poor” is derogatory to impoverished indigenous communities, it was replaced by “ecologismo popular” or “popular environmentalism” already in the early 1990s (Martinez, 1992, p. 24). The fourth main concept is the concept of ecological debt and climate justice. In EJOLT’s understanding, the ecological debt arises from ecologically unequal trade as well as from the occupation of disproportionate environmental space (Weterings, 1994) which was then deployed as climate debt in international negotiations on climate change. EJOLT introduced and developed the concept of climate justice in the early 2000s, which after that rapidly spread around the world (Bond, 2014).14

The selection of cases to be further analysed is based on the map of EJOLT15 and specific literature findings. As the regional office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the project holder decided for two cases from South Africa. The information on the cases is mainly taken from a book recommended by EJOLT, namely Ecological Economics from the Ground Up (Healy, Martínez-Alier, Temper, Walter, & Gerber, 2013).16 A field research would help to verify these reports.

13 See here for an interview with Robert Bullard on environmental justice: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/bullard.html 14 The project holder can at this point not analyse the concepts that EJOLT is referring to and their eventual controversial aspects in depth. One limitation is in fact the bottom-up approach of EJOLT in itself as the related reports are often based solely on individual efforts. For a better understanding of these concepts, a specific literature analysis would be necessary. 15 See Figure 6, p. 32. 16 For a complete list and short description of the EJOLT cases in Southern Africa, see Appendix E. 33

B. The case of the Bisasar Road Landfill

The first example concerns the opposition of Durban’s Clair Estate neighbourhood against the Bisasar Road dump, Africa’s largest permitted landfill site. It was opened for business in 1980 during the Apartheid regime under the Group Areas Act, a crucial pillar of the Apartheid government’s segregation agenda, which meant, “Bisasar Road would ‘import’ waste from privileged white areas to impoverished, working-class black areas deprived of basic human rights. Bisasar was emblematic of 4,000 disposal dumps created across the country (of which, as the government acknowledged, only 200 met minimum environmental standards)” (Bond & Sharife, 2012). Residents of Durban’s Clair Estate neighbourhood which was classified as an ‘Indian’ and ‘coloured’ area lacked access to political, economic and legal recourse, although the African National Congress pledged in 1994 that the new democratic municipal government would close the dump.

Daily, between 3,000 and 5,000 tonnes of waste (including hazardous waste) are processed in this dump. In 2014, in spite of strong opposition by the neighbourhood, which voted for the closure of the dump, the municipality decided to keep the dump “open-for-business” and start a new project: the collection and conversion into electricity of methane emissions, a by- product of decomposing waste in the landfill. As methane is a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) more powerful than carbon dioxide, the intention was to generate carbon equivalent credits (Certified Emission Reduction units, CERs) by reducing methane emissions (Bond & Sharife, 2013).

After hosting the Green Economy Summit of 2010 and the Conference of the Parties (COP) in 2011, the South African government signed a more sustainable and green development of its economy, called the National Climate Change Response Green Paper. In the course of these events, Bisasar Road dump became the leading Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) pilot project of the country, thought to reduce GHG emissions.

The local community, however, supported from researches of the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), considered the dump “a toxic cancer hotspot” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 173). The activist Sajida Khan brought the issue to the world’s attention through a front-page article in the Washington Post and supported a local opposition movement (Bond & Dad, 2007). The World Bank was supposed to finance this project, but “apparently intimidated” (Bond & 34

Sharife, 2013, p. 174) by this organised civil society, pulled out. The municipality then registered the initiative on the UN list of CDM projects and found other international supporters as the French Development Bank (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) which assisted with an 8 million US Dollar loan thanks to an at that time expected monthly revenue of 600.000 US Dollar from the sales of carbon credits. Thereupon, municipal official soon constructed the full system of extracting methane, burning and flaring it, powering the turbines and connecting the generated electricity back into the municipal grid. Hence, the “CDM financing justifies utilization of the remaining landfill space, a toxic site based in a residential area under the guise of environmental protection against climate change” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 174). This is based on the so-called carbon or emissions trading that was launched through the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to control pollution by providing economic incentives for reduced emission of carbon dioxide (CO2)17. The case of Bisasar, however, clearly shows, that the CDM under the UN does not reduce emissions at the source, “but move reductions to where it is the cheapest to make them, which normally means a shift from the Northern to Southern countries” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 171). It is, however, in line with Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol that declares that the CDM allows a country with an emission- reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party18) to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries and earn CERs19: “A more climate-appropriate approach could have been considered, but was constrained by two factors: a CDM which locked in municipal environmental racism, intra-community conflict, fraud and ineligibility; and adequate financing to pursue a different route. It is because of the dual problem of CDMs — they amplify problems, and they forego alternative options — that this mechanism should be discontinued. The pilot project for South Africa is a case in point” (Bond & Sharife, 2012).

17 See http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/background/items/2880.php. 18 A list in the Kyoto Protocol of 38 countries plus the EU that agreed to QELRCs (emission targets), along with the QELRCs they accepted. The list is nearly identical to the Annex I Parties listed in the Convention except that it does not include Belarus or Turkey. 19 See http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms/clean_development_mechanism/items/2718.php, the official website of the United Nations Frame Convention of Climate Change. 35

C. Acid mine drainage: Witwatersrand water catastrophe and the issue of the Green Paper

The second example of environmental conflict in South Africa, still based on the findings of Bond and Sharife, concerns the uranium-mining site of the Witwatersrand region, the largest gold and uranium basin in South Africa, exploited by the multinationals of the Minerals- Energy-Complex. Apart from climate change, acid mine drainage (ADM) has been described as the “single most dangerous threat to South Africa’s environment” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 176). Inadequate controls and safety standards in the uranium mining industry in the Witwatersrand basin have therefore resulted in an environmentally dangerous situation due to radioactive tailings and contaminated water.

Gold mining was one of the main pillars of South Africa that was capable of supplying cheapened labour and cheap resources (Bond & Sharife, 2013). Ever since the famous Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886, which was also the founding event for the town of Johannesburg, the Witwatersrand basin has been a major mining site. In search of new sources of uranium, the US and United Kingdom (UK) governments jointly sponsored a global prospecting programme, which indicated that the Witwatersrand gold mines contained significant amounts of radioactive materials. By late 1949, a process, which would lead to the opening of 26 Witwatersrand gold mines, started in secret contracts with the US and the UK. In these contracts, the South African mining industry agreed to supply uranium for a 10-year period based on a price structure that covered extraction costs plus profits (Fig, 2009).

With significantly lower safety standards and production costs in South Africa than in other countries, companies like AngloGold, now AngloGold Ashanti, and other companies have been mining gold, but also uranium ever since (Coetzee, Wade, & Winde, 2002). 20 As a result, the environmental liabilities of the mining practices affect the quality and quantity of water supplies for the entire country, one of the world’s most arid nations. One of these liabilities included a mine tailings dam measuring 400 square kilometres comprised of waste materials alongside six billion tonnes of iron sulphide, one of the substances which, when exposed to air and water, produces acid mine water. This then impacted as much as 40 million litres of

20 See also http://www.nuclear-risks.org/en/hibakusha-worldwide/witwatersrand.html. 36

ADM: “Like the porous of dolomite aquifer, acting as a sponge, the multinationals of the Minerals-Energy-Complex sponge off economies, people and ecologies” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 177).

Although the South African government’s Minerals and Mining Policy of South Africa: Green Paper21 declares that costs of remedying pollution must be paid for by the responsible, companies have been seeking so-called ‘closure certificates’ exonerating them from environmental reparations and liabilities. According to Bond and Sharife, this very much resembles the realities of the Minerals-Energy Complex, which is – in contradiction to the Green Paper rhetoric – proven by the Eskom expansion plans for coal-fired electricity.

The antidote to environmental degradation is a louder civil society demands for genuine solutions not found in the Green Paper, World Bank reports or other state and supranational initiatives. According to Bond and Sharife, grassroots activism is basically the only way to achieve solutions to conflicts like the one in the Witwatersrand basin: “Such activism exists in isolated, fragmented forms, such as the myriad township battles with municipalities; [...] campaigns to close the South Durban petrochemical complex, the Bisasar Road dump; or struggles against multinational corporations’ plans for resource extraction […], to mention a few examples” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 185). It must be a “fully connected civil society project to link demands for renewable energy, household electricity, climate change mitigation and adaption, anti-pollution, protection of the Witwatersrand water table, occupational safety and health, reparations for climate damage, return of capital flight, end to crony-capitalistic- political corporate corruption and the need to leave minerals in the soil (especially coal in the hole) is yet to catalyse” (Bond & Sharife, 2013, p. 185).

These two examples make clear that the policies of the governments including supranational organisations did not meet the expectations of the activists on the ground as part of the social movements. Given the time and financial restraints, the project holder was not able to verify the current situation on the ground. More sources would have helped to develop an even better understanding of the developments concerning these examples.

21 See http://www.gov.za/documents/minerals-and-mining-policy-south-africa-green-paper. 37

VII. Military impact on the environment

Figure 8: US military bases abroad, 2015 (Source: David Vine, Base Nation)

In the context of conflicts and international risks, the military activities on the African continent deserve to be well analysed and monitored also in the future. The new risk of militarisation of environmental-related conflicts is an important reason for that. From the comparison of different maps and sources, e.g. David Vine (Vine, 2015), the project holder excludes a relevant presence of foreign military bases in the region of Southern Africa compared with the presence and activities in other parts of the world. Other than during times of the Cold War, the Southern African region does not to appear to be of strategic military importance other than e.g. the Middle East or Northern Africa.

The negative impact of military activities, e.g. military polygons, military airports, large military bases in general, on the environment is a relevant issue that is often marginalised. That is why military activities also in the Southern African region should be considered as a possible cause of problems.

As regards the military police, it is interesting to see that South Africa joined the programme of COESPU (Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units), a military institution based in Italy, that is focusing more and more on Africa.

VIII. Other initiatives of conflict prevention and mediation

There is a range of institutions in the field of conflict prevention initiatives that also focus on environment-related conflicts. Some of them base their work on research as the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), some on advocacy as the International Land Coalition or the International Crisis Group (ICG); others are actually doing project work on the ground as International Alert (IA)22. The ones with the biggest outreach are based in North America and Europe, mainly for reasons of financing, but also because many of these initiatives work closely with UN organisations as the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) or the Initiative for Peacebuilding (IFP).

However, conflict prevention is also taking place on the local level, and that is both on side of the government and the civil society sector. The Republic of Mauritius for example is conducting prevention initiatives on historic preservation and public sensitisation. It established an Environmental Law and Prosecution Division that is mandated to establish the right enabling legal and institutional instrument for environmental protection and management as well as the Police de l’Environnement which provides assistance to the Director of Environment as well as Enforcing Agencies to enforce environmental laws23. The Republic of the Seychelles in turn has installed a Division on Environment Education Activities, which is entrusted with the responsibilities of running all the environmental education and Public Relations activities as well as assisting other Divisions or Sections within the Department in carrying out various activities and projects, as well as a Documentation Centre that provides services to public on a day-to-day basis. The Division on Environment Education Activities works closely with other governmental and non-governmental organisations to ensure that education for sustainable development is mainstreamed in programmes, project and action plans at all level. It also works collaboratively with regional and international organisations and institutions which promotes education for sustainable development or which builds the capacity of local people on sustainable development issue. The government of Southern Africa has created an Environment Sector Conflict and Dispute Resolution Directorate in the Department of Environmental Affairs. The National Department of

22 For a comprehensive list, see Appendix C. 23 For this example and the following examples see Appendix F. 40

Environmental Affairs is running a network of environmental compliance and enforcement officials from national, provincial and municipal government called the Green Scorpions (Environmental Management Inspectorate, EMI), which are leading the criminal prosecution. The Green Scorpions all share the same legislative powers and duties in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA). EMIs are tasked with ensuring the implementation of and adherence to specific pieces of national environmental legislation.

Whereas these governmental projects are of course rarely critical with state programmes or with corporate activities, local civil society has been able to establish non-governmental conflict management institutions since the end of Apartheid as the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) based in Durban. It was established in 1992 with the aim of influencing the process of negotiation and conflict resolution in South Africa. ACCORD's focus has since broadened to include the whole of the African continent, and its activities stretch from the SADC in the South, through the Great Lakes region to West Africa and the Horn of Africa in the northeast. Other than the international institutions working on conflict prevention and resolution in the region, ACCORD strives to offer innovative and effective African solutions to African challenges. Through its work, ACCORD has developed a comprehensive peace model, officially recognized by the United Nations in 1996 as a viable model for Africa24. Another local example for civil society engagement in conflict prevention and resolution work is the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR). It was already established in 1968 in Cape Town with the intention to contribute towards a just and sustainable peace in Africa by promoting constructive, creative and co-operative approaches to the resolution of conflict through training, policy development, research, and capacity-building. Since 2003, CCR extended its work on a pan-continental basis to strengthen the capacity of African institutions and actors to manage conflicts and build peace. This included a contribution to policy and academic debates on African security and governance issues towards a just and sustainable peace in Africa through providing an impartial space for key stakeholders to engage critically and freely in these discussions. CCR’s focus is on peacebuilding and region building, as well as by its synergistic combination of policy practice25. Although there are other local initiatives, ACCORD and CCR remain among only a handful of African policy and capacity-

24 For further reading, see http://www.accord.org.za/. 25 For more details, see http://www.ccr.org.za/. 41 building institutions with high-level convening power and a solid track record in empowering actors at the national and regional levels.

Other means of conflict prevention and resolution that ought to be taken seriously are traditional conflict resolution methods and customs. These local traditions, whether adjudication or mediation, form part of the social system. Their objective is usually more than settling a case, but reconciliation and the maintenance or even improvement of social relationships. What is common to all these traditional instruments is the desire to contain conflict and therefore the potential for disruption. The use of alternative methods of conflict resolution by the traditional societies of South Africa and its neighbouring countries is deeply rooted in the customs and traditions of the various tribes of the region. These range from the rudimentary processes of the Khoisan of the remote Northern Cape to the sophisticated traditional courts of the Zulu in KwaZulu-Natal (Maharaj, 2008). As such, chiefs and headmen in the conflict resolution process played an important role in the development of South African jurisprudence, especially in respect to customary law (Hammond-Tooke, 1993). Interesting enough, the methods of conflict resolution employed in traditional courts are not unique to South Africa, but are practised elsewhere in traditional societies in Africa, Asia and Australia. The debate in South Africa, however, is on whether these methods can or should be extended to cases that did not previously fall under the umbrella of traditional courts. This is because the majority of the South African population is rural and conceivably still wedded to tribal lore and culture (Oomen, 2005). As a concomitant of urbanisation, informal conflict resolution regimes other than the traditional forms have emerged in recent years. The so-called ‘People’s Courts’ courts, which are not recognised by the government, are an attempt to return to the precepts of African communitarianism (Radipati, 1993).26

26 For an overview of important institutions in the field of conflict prevention in South Africa, see Appendix D. 42

IX. Conclusions

Today, the large majority of institutions and enterprises is talking about sustainability, but from different perspectives. There is an increasing interest in conflict prevention, but it is important to distinguish and criticise the different initiatives in this sector and to understand the dynamics and the real motivations behind.

In general, the Southern African region (geographical definition) appears to be economically attractive, but less relevant from a geopolitical point of view. At the moment there seems to be no risk of interstate wars on natural resources, even considering that the Republic of Congo was a theatre of war until 2003. Still it will be important to monitor if new foreign military bases – e.g. of the US and China – will be installed, as this could likely create international tensions.

There is a relevant number of environmental problems in the Southern African region. Environmental problems as the ones described in the case studies are particularly crucial in times of climate change. The job of the activists and the social movements in the region looks difficult. The region is very attractive in terms of land and resources and will continue to be attractive, that is why corporate activities will not diminish. That is why the Rosa-Luxemburg- Stiftung should support local activists in their local struggles, as the EJOLT network is somehow doing. At this regard, the EJOLT maps look rich in information, but the reports related to the single conflicts could be more accurate.

The relevant presence of foreign corporation doing business in the region and causing environmental makes the internationalisation of the local struggles essential and an information exchange between activists of South and North. Something to bear in mind is what Chomsky considers as the only means to confront state capitalism: an active public:

“The principal architects of policy can only be held accountable by an organised, active public. But in our modern democratic system, the public has been essentially atomised and marginalised. Again, none of this is by accident. It is quite purposeful” (Chomsky N. , 2011, S. 58).

The development of a map of existing and potential conflicts and a map of initiatives and instruments in favour of conflict prevention was an ambitious project that the project holder

43 could only partially fulfil, as it would have needed a deep analysis on the ground and extensive work with local initiatives. Still it remains an important topic that could be pursued by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in the future.

X. Bibliography

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XI. Appendices A. Responses to questionnaire 1. Farai Maguwu, doctoral student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society (email correspondence from April 6, 2015) In the case of Zimbabwe there are many environmental conflicts especially involving mining. There is the Penhalonga Conflict on the outskirts of Mutare, which has been raging for close to a decade. A Russian - Zim joint venture DTZ OZGEO has been doing open cast gold mining in the area and in the process destroying the environment extensively. A beautiful river, Mutare River, has been reduced to a tunnel for a stretch of about 10KM whilst forests have disappeared

Penhalonga Community Development Trust reported the company to the Environmental Management Agency in 2014 and the company was stopped from doing further mining activities. However, DTZ is a company patronized by senior ZANU PF officials who are pushing for resumption of operations.

But these environmental conflicts are common in Zimbabwe. In the Marange diamond fields, villagers are complaining of water poisoning which is killing livestock. In Hwange colliery, the community is also disgruntled due to the impacts of coal mining and thermal power station on their health. Again, the involvement of politicians and abuse of state institutions make resistance difficult.

I am not aware of any conflict prevention mechanisms except little efforts we are doing of building the capacity of communities to resist. Our organisation, Centre for Natural resource Governance and Zimbabwe Environmental law Association are the two leading organisations helping communities resist pollution by big mining corporations.

2. Assane Juanga, Coordenador Executivo da UPC- Uniao Provincial de Camponeses de Cabo Delgado (email correspondence from March 3, 2015) The most significant conflicts with the environment in this region are:

• exploitation of mineral resources in the districts of Ancuabe and Namuno; • ruby extraction in the Montepuez district; • exploration of sand from the Mecufi district; • natural gas exploration in the districts of Palma and Mocimboa da Praia.

Description:

The exploitation of mineral resources in the districts of Ancuabe and Namuno has been marked by the destruction of the environment, especially in the practice of mining, where the miners invade and / or buy the farmers' fields. As consequences of this practice, there is a destruction of the natural structure of the soil, constant erosion, destruction of fields of farmers due to flooding, water from contaminated rivers, because after the excavations, the miners are addressed in the rivers for their washing. In addition, it also has other side effects such as land conflicts, prostitution, crime, school abandonment by children and young people to engage in this activity, constant divorces in homes, etc.

There are initiatives. For example, the UPC has developed several campaigns and reflections of debate surrounding the abandonment of farmers in agricultural activity to engage in mining customers, bringing the aforementioned consequences and placing the population in extreme food insecurity. The UPC has been conducting training on climate change, as an alternative of the peasants to gain knowledge on adaptation measures to climate change. We also study on land grabbing peasants by investors for megaprojects facility; and the conduct of open terraces where various actors in the environmental conservation area part in search of promoters of these conflicts.

The sources are numerous, such as the study of the environmental impact of gas exploration in the Rovuma Basin in Palma district in the province of Cabo Delgado; social and environmental impact on mining customers in the Montepuez district. The relevant contacts for this research are the organisations that are part of the thematic group of natural resources and environment (GTRNA) such as: Association of Environment, Centro Terra Viva, Earth Forum, Eduardo Mondlane University, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Direction Provincial Land, Environment and Rural Development. The most institutions involved in conflicts are: Montepuez Ruby Mining, Anadarko, Syrah Resources, Ecoenergia, Ajacaranda miners and unlicensed .

The activities of these companies are diverse and distributed as follows:

• Montepuez Ruby Mining - is dedicated to the extraction of mineral resources (Ruby); • Anadarko - dedicated to liquefied natural gas exploration; • Syrah Resources - is dedicated to the exploration of graphite;

• Ecoenergia - is dedicated to sugarcane field plantations; • Ajacaranda - dedicated to banana plantation; • Prospectors unlicensed - are dedicated to mining customers.

B. Definitions

Environmental related conflict:

“Environmental conflicts manifest themselves as political, social, economic, ethnic, religious or territorial conflicts, or conflicts over resources or national interests, or any other type of conflict. They are traditional conflicts induced by an environmental degradation. Environmental conflicts are characterized by the principal importance of degradation in one or more of the following fields: 1) overuse of renewable resources; 2) overstrain of the environment's sink capacity (pollution); 3) impoverishment of the living space.” (Libiszewski, 1992, p. 13).

“Environmental conflicts are violent conflicts that are caused by environmental scarcity in interaction with a variety of, often situation-specific, contextual factors. Environmental scarcity appears in three forms: demand-induced scarcity (i.e. scarcity arising from increases in demand caused by, for example, population growth); supply-induced scarcity (i.e. scarcity arising from reduced total availability of certain resources due to degradation or depletion), and structural scarcity (i.e. scarcity arising from the unequal distribution of or access to resources).” (Homer-Dixon, 1999, p. 254).

Conflict prevention:

“Any structural or intercessory means to keep intrastate or interstate tension and disputes from escalating into significant violence and use of armed forces, to strengthen the capabilities of potential parties to violent conflict for resolving such disputes peacefully, and to progressively reduce the underlying problems that produce these issues and disputes.” (Lund, 2002, p. 117).

“A medium and long-term proactive operational or structural strategy undertaken by a variety of actors, intended to identify and create the enabling conditions for a stable and more predictable international security environment.” (Carment & Schnabel, 2003, p. 11).

Climate justice:

“Climate Justice is a vision to dissolve and alleviate the unequal burdens created by climate change. As a form of environmental justice, climate justice is the fair treatment of all people

54 and freedom from discrimination with the creation of policies and projects that address climate change and the systems that create climate change and perpetuate discrimination.” (Climate Institute, 2015).

“Climate Justice is a struggle over land, forest, water, culture, food sovereignty, collective and social rights; it is a struggle that considers “justice” at the basis of any solution; a struggle that supports climate solutions found in the practices and knowledge of those already fighting to protect and defend their livelihoods and the environment; a struggle that insists on a genuine systematic transformation in order to tackle the real causes of climate change.” (Rising Tide North America and Carbon Trade Watch, p. 26).

C. General list of institutions working on environment related conflict prevention (UN Interagency Framework Team, 2012, pp. 87-90)

Name Description Webpage URL Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) The Center for the Study of Civil War has conducted extensive quantitative http://www.ipinst.org/ research and analysis on links between natural resources and civil war. They have also extended this work to include climate change and security. United States Institute of Peace (USIP) USIP is the independent, nonpartisan conflict management centre created http://www.usip.org/ by the US Congress to prevent and mitigate international conflict without resorting to violence. USIP works to save lives increase the government’s ability to deal with conflicts before they escalate, reduce government costs, and enhance our national security. The USIP has issue Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction, which includes a detailed chapter on Sustainable Economy and natural resources. University of Oxford The Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) within the http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/ Department of Economics carries out economic research with a particular focus on Africa. Its aim is to improve economic and social conditions in the poorest societies. The resulting policy recommendations address questions in the economic and political spheres as well as in civil society in developing countries. One of the themes addressed by the centre is the role of natural resource governance in conflict and peacebuilding. It has conducted a series of quantitative studies on how greed and grievances over natural resources contribute to conflict and also published case studies on good resource governance. The work of the centre catalysed the Natural Resource Charter Initiative. University for Peace UPEACE offers a Masters of Arts Programme in Environmental Security and http://www.upeace.org/academic/ Governance (ESG). The programme is designed for those wishing to masters/esp.cfm participate in environmental policy design at regional, national, and/or international levels. It pursues a comprehensive understanding of the complex interconnections among global environmental change, peace, and conflict, and how these interconnections are addressed by policy-makers in a variety of arenas.

Name Description Webpage URL Tufts University The Feinstein International Center develops and promotes operational and http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/ policy responses to protect and strengthen the lives and livelihoods of people living in crisis-affected and marginalized communities. This has included research on natural resources, livelihoods, vulnerability and resilience, as well as pastoralism, migration, and food security. Woodrow Wilson International Center The Environmental Change and Security Programme explores the http://www.wilsoncenter.org/progr for Scholars connections between environmental, health, and population dynamics and am/environmental-change-and- their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. They have security-program conducted detailed research on environmental peace making, environmental cooperation, resource scarcity, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. United Nations University (UNU) Projects conducted by the Institute for Environment and Human Security http://www.ehs.unu.edu/ (IEHS) reflect the overall mission of UNU: “Advancing Knowledge for Human Security and Development”. UNU-EHS spearheads research and capacity-building activities in the broad interdisciplinary field of ‘risk and vulnerability’. This includes research tracts on natural resources, livelihoods, migration, climate change and disasters. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) The Centre is part of the alliance of the Consultative Group on http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), dedicated to generating and applying the best available knowledge to stimulate agricultural growth, raise farmers’ incomes, and protect the environment. The Centre’s vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households strategically increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve their food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, energy resources and environmental sustainability. The Centre’s mission is to generate science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and use its research to advance policies and practices that benefit the poor and the environment. Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) The Platform is an inter-agency network that connects the critical mass of http://www.gpplatform.ch/ peacebuilding actors, resources, and expertise in Geneva and worldwide. The Platform has a mandate to facilitate interaction on peacebuilding between different institutions and sectors, and to advance new knowledge

Name Description Webpage URL and understanding of peacebuilding issues and contexts. It also plays a creative role in building bridges between international peacebuilding actors located in Geneva, the United Nations peacebuilding architecture in New York, and peacebuilding activities in the field. The Platform’s network comprises more than 700 peacebuilding professionals and over 60 institutions working on peacebuilding directly or indirectly. As part of its 2012-2014 Programme, the Platform provides policy-relevant advice and services, ensures the continuous exchange of information through seminars, consultations, and conferences, and facilitates outcome- oriented peacebuilding dialogues in five focus areas, including a dedicated track on natural resources. Initiative for Peacebuilding (IFP) A consortium led by International Alert and funded by the European http://www.initiativeforpeacebuildi Commission. IfP draws together the complementary geographic and ng.eu/ thematic expertise of 10 civil society organisations (and their networks) with offices across the EU and in conflict-affected countries. Its aim is to develop and harness international knowledge and expertise in the field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding to ensure that all stakeholders, including EU institutions, can access strong independent analysis in order to facilitate better informed and more evidence-based policy decisions. IfP focuses on multiple themes, across multiple regions and organized under the framework of six interconnecting clusters. Thematically, the action includes: security; gender; democratization and transitional justice; mediation and dialogue; regional cooperation on environment, economy and natural resource management; and capacity-building and training. International Land Coalition A global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations http://www.landcoalition.org/ working together to promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge-sharing and capacity-building. The mission of the coalition is to secure and equitable access to and control over land reduces poverty and contributes to identity, dignity and inclusion. Global Water Partnership (GWP) GWP’s vision is for a water secure world. Its mission is to support the http://www.gwp.org/ sustainable development and management of water resources at all levels.

Name Description Webpage URL GWP focuses on advancing Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) - the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of ecosystems and the environment. Environmental Law Institute (ELI) ELI is a non-profit, non-advocacy environmental group, which specializes in http://www.eli.org/Program_Areas/ producing publications and research that target legal practitioners, PCNRM/ business leaders, land managers, land use planners, environmentalists, journalists, and lawmakers. ELI also convenes conferences to promote the exchange of ideas; holds seminars to educate legal practitioners and business leaders; and publishes original research, both as monographs and in its periodicals, the Environmental Law Reporter, The Environmental Forum, and the National Wetlands Newsletter. Together with UNEP and the Universities of Tokyo and McGill, ELI is co-managing a global research programme ‘Strengthening post-conflict peacebuilding through natural resource management’. This four-year research and publication project has yielded more than 150 peer-reviewed case studies and analyses by over 230 scholars, practitioners, and decision makers from 50 countries. These case studies and analyses have been assembled into a set of six edited books - all published by Earthscan - each focusing on: (1) high-value natural resources; (2) land; (3) assessment and restoration of natural resources; (4) water; (5) resources for livelihoods; and (6) governance. International Institute for Sustainable IISD manages a dedicated programme on environment, conflict and http://www.iisd.org/ecp/ Development (IISD) peacebuilding. The programme aims to catalyse a better understanding of the links between environmental change and human security in order to inform effective conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The programme also considers how climate change could affect political and economic stability, and develops effective ways to address those problems. Initiative on Quiet Diplomacy (IQD) IQD provides practical tools and techniques for mediating conflicts. It http://www.iqdiplomacy.org/ assists inter-governmental organisations, governments and conflict parties to identify, understand and effectively address the causes of conflict with

Name Description Webpage URL just solutions. IQD promotes proactive, early and quiet preventive diplomacy by stimulating institutional development at inter-governmental level, providing multidisciplinary analysis and discreet advice, and supporting and facilitating dialogue and mediation processes. The IQD is in the process of developing technical guidance on natural resources and conflict prevention as well as land and conflict prevention. International Crisis Group (ICG) One of the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, sources of analysis http://www.crisisgroup.org/ and advice to governments, and intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations, European Union and World Bank, on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. ICG’s reports, and the advocacy associated with them, provide early warning, conflict analysis, and recommendations for conflict resolution. A number of country-specific reports have focused on the role of natural resources and the environment in driving conflict and impeding peacebuilding. ICG is also conducting new analysis on the climate change and conflict nexus. Global Witness Global Witness operates at the nexus of development, the environment http://www.globalwitness.org/ and trade. Global Witness seeks to raise awareness on the underlying causes of conflict and poverty and to end the impunity of individuals, companies and governments that exploit natural resources for their own benefit at the expense of their people and the environment. Global Witness activities range from targeted global advocacy, to undercover investigations, to high-level lobby meetings, to country level technical support. International Alert (IA) IA is an independent peacebuilding organisation that works to establish http://www.international-alert.org/ the foundations for lasting peace and security in communities affected by violent conflict. International Alert works in over 20 countries and territories around the world, both directly with people affected by violent conflict as well as at government, EU and UN levels to shape policy and practice in building sustainable peace. IA has conducted focused work on managing conflicts from natural resources as well as on climate change and security.

Name Description Webpage URL Interpeace Interpeace is an international peacebuilding organisation that helps http://www.interpeace.org/ divided and conflicted societies build sustainable peace. The organisation works with local peacebuilding teams, made up of nationals from affected countries, to facilitate dialogue with all sectors of society. These dialogue processes enable populations directly affected by conflict to rebuild trust, define priorities for social, economic and political rehabilitation, find consensus-based solutions to conflict, and assist with their implementation. Saferworld: Saferworld is an independent organisation that works directly with local http://www.saferworld.org.uk/ people as well as through governments and international bodies to prevent violent conflict and encourage cooperative approaches to security. Saferworld has conducted focused work on managing conflicts from natural resources as well as on climate change and security. Conciliation Resources (CR) CR is an independent charity working internationally to prevent violent http://www.c-r.org/ conflict, promote justice and build lasting peace in war-torn societies. The CR Accord publication series informs and strengthens peace processes worldwide by documenting and analysing the lessons of peace making. Natural resources in conflict, peace agreements and peacebuilding are one of the key topics covered by Accord.

D. Important institutions and think-tanks in Southern Africa (own research)

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by Centre for Conflict Cape Town, RSA http://www.ccr.org.za/ The Centre for Conflict Resolution aims to Netherlands Ministry of Resolution contribute towards a just and sustainable peace Foreign Affairs; Swedish in Africa by promoting constructive, creative International Development and co-operative approaches to the resolution Cooperation Agency (SIDA); of conflict through training, policy Embassy of Denmark, South development, research, and capacity-building. Africa; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Embassy of Finland, South Africa Centre for Natural Zimbabwe Founded by Farai Maguwu Resource Governance Consultancy Africa Johannesburg, RSA http://www.consultancya IOA was established in South Africa in 2007 with Intelligence frica.com/ the goal of becoming the definitive source of expert research and analysis on Africa, in Africa. We enable Private, Public, Donor and Civil Society Organisation (CSO) entities to make informed and calculated decisions in and on Africa through superior insight into the continent’s political, economic, financial and social affairs. Council for Scientific South Africa http://csir.co.za/ The CSIR is one of the leading scientific and The CSIR receives an annual and Industrial technology research, development and grant from Parliament, Research (CSIR) implementation organisations in Africa. through the Department of Constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1945 as a Science and Technology (DST), science council, the CSIR undertakes directed which accounts for close to 40 and multidisciplinary research, technological per cent of its total income. innovation as well as industrial and scientific The remainder is generated development to improve the quality of life of from research contracts with the country’s people. The CSIR is committed to government departments at supporting innovation in South Africa to national, provincial and

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by improve national competitiveness in the global municipal levels, the private economy. Science and technology services and sector and research funding solutions are provided in support of various agencies in South Africa and stakeholders, and opportunities are identified abroad. Additional income is where new technologies can be further derived from royalties, developed and exploited in the private and licences and dividends from IP public sectors for commercial and social management and commercial benefit. The CSIR’s shareholder is the South companies created by the African Parliament, held in proxy by the CSIR. Minister of Science and Technology. Defence Web Johannesburg, RSA http://www.defenceweb. co.za/ Geasphere RSA http://www.geasphere.or GeaSphere has its roots at a meeting held in the Since 2003, funding has been g Nelspruit Botanical Gardens in 1999.This obtained from various meeting went under the heading “South African sources, including Global Water Crisis” and it focused on the significant Greengrants Fund (GGF) and impacts of industrial timber plantations in our the Germany based Grassroots region – particularly with reference to Foundation. Currently, we are escalating water shortages. The organizer of the in the ninth year of a meeting – Philip Owen – was tasked with ‘partnership’ with the Swedish establishing a network for dissemination of Society for Nature relevant information. The organisation Conservation (SSNC). These functioned as the ‘South African Water Crisis funds allow us to currently Network” until formally registered as employ part time coordinators GeaSphere in 2003. in South Africa and Swaziland. Global Witness London, UK https://www.globalwitne Global Witness is an international NGO Adessium Foundation; Arcus ss.org established in 1993 that works to break the Foundation; David and Anita links between natural resource exploitation, Keller Foundation; Democratic conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights Governance Facility; Ford abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices Foundation; Grantham in London and Washington, D.C. Global Witness Foundation for the Protection of the Environment; Humanity

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by states that it does not have any political United; Irish Aid; JMG affiliation. Foundation; Jocarno Fund; Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); Pro Victimis Foundation; Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Samworth Foundation; Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (The Skoll Foundation); Synchronicity Earth; Ted Prize; The Alexander Soros Foundation; The David and Elaine Potter Foundation; The Foundation to Promote Open Society; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; The Laura & John Arnold Foundation; The MMHBO Fund; The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA); The University of Wolverhampton – Strengthening African Forest Governance Contract; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; UK Department for International Development; Wallace Global Fund; World Resources

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by Institute. 52 per cent income from governments, 43 per cent from Trusts and Foundations. Institute for Security Pretoria, RSA https://www.issafrica.org The Institute for Security Studies is an African Government of Australia; Studies / organisation, which aims to enhance human Government of Canada; security on the continent. It does independent Government of Denmark; and authoritative research, provides expert Government of Finland; policy advice, and delivers practical training and Government of Japan; technical assistance. The vision of the ISS is a Government of Netherlands; peaceful and prosperous Africa for its entire Government of Norway; people. Our goal is to advance human security Government of Sweden; in Africa through evidence-based policy advice, Government of the United technical support and capacity building. States of America / USAID; African Union; British High Commission; Embassy of the Republic of Korea; European Commission (EU); Ford Foundation; Government of Germany/ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Government of New Zealand; Government of the United Kingdom/Department for International Development (DFID); Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Hanns Seidel Foundation; Institute for Development Studies; International Development Research Centre (IDRC); MTN;

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by National Endowment for Democracy; Omega Research Foundation; Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA); Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA); Swiss Confederation; The World Bank; United Nations Development Program (UNDP); United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA); Western Cape Government Rosa-Luxemburg- Johannesburg, RSA http://www.rosalux.co.za The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is a German BMZ Stiftung - South Africa political foundation that promotes democratic socialism worldwide. It is registered as a non- profit organisation according to South African law and is affiliated to the German Left Party. The foundation has been active in Southern Africa since 2002 and its focus on political education involves creating platforms for civic participation, critical thinking and research and dialogue in the quest for participatory, inclusive and peaceful democracy. South African Institute Cape Town, RSA http://www.saiia.org.za/ The South African Institute of International The Konrad Adenauer of International Affairs Affairs (SAIIA) is South Africa’s premier research Foundation; The Royal Danish institute on international issues. As an Ministry of Foreign Affairs; independent, non-government think tank, we The Swedish International have a long and proud history of providing Development Cooperation thought leadership in Africa. We are both a Agency; Anglo American centre for research excellence and a home for Chairman’s Fund; Anglo

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by stimulating public discussion. Founded in 1934, Platinum; Department for SAIIA has been voted the best think tank in sub International Development; Saharan Africa for five consecutive years (2009- Deutsche Gesellschaft für 2013) in the largest global survey of peers, the Internationale University of Pennsylvania’s annual Global Think Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Tank Survey. Canadian International Development Agency; Centre for International Governance Innovation; Economic and Social Research Council; First Rand Foundation; Foundation Open Society Institute; Open Society Foundation for South Africa; Oppenheimer Memorial Trust; The Bradlow Foundation; The British High Commission; The Government of the Kingdom of Denmark; The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; World Bank Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe http://www.zela.org/ Formed in 2000 and legally constituted as a European Union; Ford Environmental Law Trust in November 2001 under Notarial Deed of Foundation; Southern Africa Association Trust MA1669/2001, the Zimbabwe Resources Watch (SARW); Environmental Law Association (ZELA) is a Global Greengrants premier public interest environmental law Foundation; Norwegian group based in Zimbabwe. As a public interest people's aid; Norwegian non-governmental organisation, we seek to Church aid; Irish Aid; Social promote environmental justice, sustainable and Accountability International; equitable use of natural resources, democracy Christian aid; OXFAM Novip &

Name of institution Location Webpage URL Description Funded by and good governance in the natural resources Netherlands Embassy Action and environment sector. Aid International Zimbabwe

E. Complete list of environment-related conflicts in Southern Africa (source: EJOLT Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade website)

South Africa

 Acid Mine Drainage, South Africa  Anglo Platinum Mogalakwena mine lawsuit, South Africa  Asbestos legacy, South Africa  Bafokeng Platinum mine, South Africa  Bisasar Rd Landfill Site, South Africa  Cape/Gencors asbestos mining & milling activity, South Africa  Chiawelo, Soweto, electricity struggles, South Africa  Expanded Nuclear energy, South Africa  Exxaro Leeuwpan Mining Project, South Africa  Hydraulic fracking in the Karoo, South Africa  Mondi and Sappi plantations in Zululand, South Africa  Mtunzini - Exxaro proposed sand mining, South Africa  Pondoland Wild Coast Xolobeni mining threat, South Africa  PPT case: Lonmin mine, South Africa  Richards Bay Minerals dune mining, South Africa  Sappi Ngodwana, South Africa  Sappi Saiccor pulp mill pollution, South Africa

Namibia

 Demeter International Katondo Farm Project (Bwabwata National Park) in Mbukushu District, Namibia  Namibia Agriculture and Renewables / CAPARO farming project in Caprivini, Namibia  Rio Tinto's Rössing Uranium Mine, Namibia

Botswana

 Diamond Extraction in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana

Zimbabwe

 Black Granite Mutoko, Zimbabwe  Chimanimani Diamond Mining, Zimbabwe  Chrome-rich Great Dyke Area, Zimbabwe  DTZ OZGEO Gold Penhalonga, Zimbabwe  Ethanol Fuel Plant Land Conflict, Zimbabwe  Forests of Matebeleland North Province, Zimbabwe  Gold Panning in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe  Marange Diamond Land and Human Rights abuses, Zimbabwe  Marange diamond mines pollute rivers, Zimbabwe  Mozambique Water Pollution from a dumpsite, Zimbabwe  Mutare City River Pollution, Zimbabwe  New Zimbabwe Steel River Pollution, Kwekwe, Zimbabwe  Sable Chemicals, Zimbabwe

Lesotho

 Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Lesotho

Zambia

 PPT case: Glencore copper and cobalt mining, Zambia  Vedanta and Konkola, Zambia

Mozambique

 Biofuel company likely to lose its licence in Nacala, Mozambique  Chikweti plantations, Mozambique  Eucalyptus producer Portucel Group, Mozambique  Fuel switching by Cimentos de Mocambique-Matola Gas Company, Mozambique  Gorongosa and carbon market, Mozambique  Green Resources AS Niassa Project  Large-scale coal mining and resettlements in Tete Province, Mozambique  Malonda Tree Farms in Niassa, Mozambique  Matola Gas Company CDM project, Mozambique 70

 Matuba Farm, Emvest’s land fund in Limpopo/ Chokwe, Gaza Province, Mozambique  Ntacua tree plantations in Zambezia, Mozambique  Pande and Temene Gas Field, Mozambique  Principle Capital Holdings Biofuel project in Dombe, Mozambique  ProCana Sugar Plantation, Limpopo, Mozambique  Programme of Triangular Cooperation for Developing Agriculture in the Tropical Savannahs of Mozambique (ProSavana)  Quifel’s Hoyo Hoyo agriculture project in Lioma, Zambezia Region, Mozambique  Quirimbas Community Carbon Project, Mozambique  Tectona monoculture tree plantations, Mozambique  Vale mines displace farmers, Mozambique

Mozambique (South Africa)

 Pande-Temane Natural Gas Pipeline, Mozambique & South Africa

F. Relevant activities of the region’s Ministries of Environment with regard to environment related conflict management

1. Republic of Botswana, Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism27

a) Most significant conflicts: Land use conflicts “Land use conflict in Botswana occurs at different levels: intra - urban, the urban - rural interface and the intra - rural. Land use conflict at intra-urban level are a result of competition between different uses for the same piece of land within the urban areas. In the case of Gaborone’s original Central Business District for example, there is growing pressure to have residential properties converted to commercial. Still in Gaborone, pressure from developers has led to the conversion of recreational areas- open spaces to commercial use such as petrol stations. Land use conflicts at the rural-urban interface usually take the form of competition between urban land uses and nonurban land uses. The urbanization process in Botswana entails the expansion of urban land uses over rural. The most well-known is the development of Phakalane Township to the north of Gaborone. To the south of Gaborone, a substantial part of the Forest Hill Farm has been converted into residential estates of Kgale View area. In Francistown the newly established Gerald Estate development area is located in an area that was formally used for cattle ranching. Land use conflict between wildlife and livestock are common in areas bordering Wildlife Management Areas. In other cases, measures geared at promoting beef industry have impacted negatively on wildlife. This refers particularly to the erection of the so-called veterinary fences in different parts of the country. Research has shown that the fence interfere with animal migration patterns causing decimation of wildlife population. The discussion in the Land use and land resources chapter concentrate on land use and land resource with regard to pressure and causes of land use and land resources problems, the result of the problems and the mitigation measures through which different actors in Botswana are trying to address.”28

Type of conflict: civil “While the conflict itself is materializing into a civil dispute between ethnic tribes regarding land use, the issue is not particular to Botswana. Around the Okavango, Namibia and Angola are experiencing a similar problem due to land degradation and overgrazing. Ethnic groups

27 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/DMM/index.php. 28 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/uploads/files/landuse_n_landresourcess.pdf. 72 share similarities across borders, creating a domestic problem that may have international implications. Level of Conflict: Resource Access. The conflict is in the resource access level of conflict and the key concern is how this will materialize in the coming years. There is a certain amount of time in which the government can institute policies to reduce the probability of conflict.”29

b) Conflict prevention initiatives: World Wetlands Day Commemoration 2015 “Wetland ecosystems provide important services to many people and it is often the poorest communities who depend on them most, yet they remain highly threatened by land conversion, water abstraction and pollution,” says William Darwall, Head of IUCN Species Program’s Freshwater Unit. “We hope this book will inspire decision makers throughout the region to take forward programs for monitoring conditions within the delta as one important step for helping to ensure the survival of this delta as one of the world’s most beautiful and valuable wetlands. “The plight of wetland species is so often overlooked yet they face many serious threats around the world - in particular due to the increasing water use. This book not only provides some wonderful pictures of the highly diverse group of species found in the Okavango Delta, but also helps to raise awareness about the important role they play in this vital ecosystem,” says Dr. Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.”30

World Day to Combat Desertification 09/06/2015 “This year's theme calls for:

 A change in our land use practices through smart agriculture and adaptation to changing climate, especially in the dry fragile parts of the world where food shortages are becoming more and more severe.  Access to technology and land rights for smallholder farmers who safeguard the environment and meet the food needs of millions of households, especially among the poorest households.  A balance in the land use for ecology and consumption, drawing on the best practices.

29 See http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/botswana.htm. 30 See http://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/wwd/10/wwd2010_rpts_botswana_iucn1.pdf. 73

 More investments in sustainable land practices so that sustainable food systems become the normal practice.  More effective action on desertification whose effects on security, peace and stability are invisible yet real for the affected countries due especially to food and water scarcity and environmentally forced migration.

Other activities for WDCD will include school awareness campaigns and community service day which will be in Nlaphwane and Mapoka.”31

c) Sources Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT)32

Darkoh, M. B. K. and Mbaiwa, J. E., 2009. Land-use and resource conflicts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, African Journal of Ecology, Volume 47, Issue Supplement s1, pp. 161–165.

d) Institutions for prevention DEA Department of Environmental Affairs- Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism33

 Coordination of the implementation of the National Environmental Education strategy and Action Plan (NEESAP)  Promotion of cooperation and partnership among the environmental education stakeholders.  Development and maintenance of an environmental resource centre.  Dissemination of environmental information.  Facilitation of the commemoration of environmentally important dates.34

31 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/DMM/news_events.php?id=117. 32 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/index.php. 33 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/DEA/index.php. 34 See http://www.mewt.gov.bw/uploads/files/dea_brochure.pdf. 74

2. Republic of Mauritius, Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development, and Disaster and Beach35

a) Conflict prevention initiatives: historic preservation “Many of the beaches in Mauritius have historical backgrounds which are often forgotten or damaged over time. The Authority strongly believes that conservation of Mauritius historical heritage is of the utmost importance and aims at preserving beaches with historic heritage. A good example is that of the Telfair Public Beach (commonly known as Telfair garden). The project stands out from other projects as all the work undertaken was aimed preserving the historical nature of the site.

The Telfair Garden historic preservation project involved the re-surfacing of the driveway and the creation of an emergency access to the beach. The steps leading to the beach have been upgraded and a masonry wall was constructed to enclose and protect the garden. A new parking area was set up and the existing amenities, like the kiosks, were upgraded. The drainage system has been restored and landscaping and turfing was carried out in such a way that the historical nature of the site was maintained. To provide more security to beach users, lighting facilities were also provided.”36

Public “Sensitisation” “The Beach Authority is not only mandated to improve the state of public beaches but also engages in public sensitization on the authority’s role as it is a key component in the preservation of public beaches. Informing people about the beaches not only makes them better understand the projects of the Beach Authority and other related institutions but also helps them to recognize the importance of protecting the beaches and contribute to the endeavours of the Beach Authority.

A campaign has recently been done with schoolchildren to make them aware of the need to protect beaches. The children have also participated in initiation to swimming and diving lessons. The objective of involving them at a young age is to help them grow into responsible beach users who will continue preserving the island’s beaches.

35 See http://environment.govmu.org/English/Pages/default.aspx. 36 See http://beachauthority.intnet.mu/historic-preservation.html. 75

Another venture of the Beach Authority was the setting up of a Beach Resource Centre in Pereybere. The model was based on a similar resource centre in the British Virgin Islands. The Resource Centre gives details on the lagoon, the do’s and don’ts on the beach and general information about the sea. Lifesavers also complement the information provided by the Resource Centre and guide people on the facilities in place on the beach.

With the collaboration of NGOs, the Beach Authority has set up a platform to give increased importance to green projects as ‘green’ is the buzzword nowadays. In fact, the Beach Authority has been working a lot with NGOs and other associations for the implementation of CSR and other similar projects.”37

b) Sources Environmental Law and Prosecution Division

“The Environmental Law and Prosecution Division is mandated to establish the right enabling legal and institutional instrument for environmental protection and management. The Division is presently reviewing and amending the Environment Protection Act (EPA), which is the umbrella framework for environmental protection in Mauritius. The Division is also responsible for developing and reviewing environmental regulations and standards for the protection of the air, land and water so as to safeguard human health and the environment. The list of Enactments Declared as Environmental Laws is being updated to be in line with the new and reviewed legislation and to have better control over offences having adverse environmental impacts.

Since 2012, the Environmental Law and Prosecution Division’s scope of work has been enlarged. The Division conducts prosecution against contraveners of the EPA and other environmental laws under Section 87 of the said Act. Accordingly, the Division is required to carry out enquiries in respect of environmental offences in consultation with relevant stakeholders and the Police de L’Environnement prior to referring the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Office for advice on prosecution.”38

37 See http://beachauthority.intnet.mu/public-senzitisation.html. 38 See http://environment.govmu.org/English/Department%20of%20Environment/Pages/Environmental-Law- and-Prosecution.aspx. 76

EIA/PER Monitoring Division

“The EIA/PER Monitoring Division was set up in March 2013 to ensure compliance to conditions imposed in EIA Licenses and PER Approvals in view of promoting sustainable environmental management.

The EIA/PER Monitoring Division has the overall responsibility of monitoring undertakings for which EIA Licenses and PER Approvals have been issued in order to ensure compliance with conditions imposed. An EIA/PER Monitoring Committee set up under section 28A of the Environment Protection Act, comprising all Enforcing Agencies, is also in place for effective monitoring exercises. In case of non-compliance, the Division recommends appropriate enforcement action to the EIA/PER Monitoring Committee and takes appropriate remedial measures in accordance with provisions underscored in the Environment Protection Act.

One of the key tasks of the Division includes the processing of Environmental Monitoring Plans submitted by proponents after an EIA License has been issued. An Environmental Monitoring Plan describes how adverse impact of a particular activity during its design, construction and operational phases will be mitigated, controlled and monitored.”39

c) Institutions Police de L’Environnement

“Established in 2000, the Police de l’Environnement provides assistance to the Director of Environment as well as Enforcing Agencies to enforce environmental laws. The Police de l’Environnement attends to environmental complaints with regard to breach of environmental laws and takes appropriate enforcement actions as well as contraventions. The main environmental complaints relate to noise pollution, odour, dumping, eyesores, illegal slaughtering and nuisances caused by derelict bare lands.

Headquartered at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Police de L’Environnement also comprises Divisional Environment Protection Teams based at the Trou- aux-Biches, Rose-Belle, Flacq, Rose-Hill and Curepipe police stations. This unit has been decentralized and strengthened to offer more efficient response to citizens. As part of their

39 See http://environment.govmu.org/English/Department%20of%20Environment/Pages/EIAPER- Monitoring.aspx. 77 duties, the Police de l’Environnement also carries out sensitization campaigns at community level.”40

3. Republic of Namibia, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry41

a) Conflict prevention initiatives: Community Forestry Program “Community forestry is one of the core programs of the Directorate of Forestry. The program aims at establishment of community forests and the transfer of forest resource management rights to local communities in accordance with the Forest Act of 2001. The objectives for the forestry sector in Namibia's second National Development Plan include close integration of the community forestry program with other community-based natural resource management initiatives. These objectives directly support the national objectives of poverty reduction, employment creation, economic development, and enhancing environmental and ecological sustainability.

The Directorate of Forestry believes that community forestry, and community-based natural resource management in general, has a great potential to help communities to achieve their own goals and to gain better control of their resources. This will give them better opportunities to improve their own lives, while simultaneously managing the forests and woodlands in a more sustainable way.

The community forestry program is a key element towards successful and sustainable management of the forest resources.”42

b) Sources Project Community Forestry in North-Eastern Namibia (CFNEN)

c) Institutions Directorate of Forestry. Its main functions are:

 Forest inventories  Maps

40 See http://environment.govmu.org/English/Department%20of%20Environment/Pages/Police-De- L'Environnement.aspx. 41 See http://www.mawf.gov.na/. 42 See http://www.mawf.gov.na/Programmes/communityforest.html. 78

 Indigenous land units classifications  Permit  Seedlings  Community Forestry Program  Training  Its core functions are: o To create, manage, utilize and conserve forests, including woodland, for human benefit. o To provide robust scientific support to manage and develop the potential of Namibia's plant and resources.43

4. Republic of Seychelles, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change44

a) Conflict prevention initiatives: Environment Education Activities “The Division on Environment Education Activities is entrusted with the responsibilities of running all the environmental education/Public Relations activities as well as assisting other Divisions/Sections within the Department in carrying out various activities and / or projects of which some are listed in the web site. The committed involvement of media (TV, Radio & Local Newspapers) especially for daily news purposes are also planned and coordinated by the Division.

Apart from activities, the production of environmental media programs on TV and Seychelles Nation's Environment Page (third page of every Monday's paper) are made possible by the commitment of the Division in collaboration with all involving partners.

Furthermore, the GREENLINE, daily available via telephone is manned by staff of PECO. It is aimed to provide service to the general public by means of receiving and forwarding environmental complaints/concerns to responsible staff members within the ministry or other responsible departments for investigation and immediate action, when need be.

43 See http://www.mawf.gov.na/Directorates/Forestry/forestry.html. 44 See http://www.env.gov.sc/. 79

The Documentation Centre The Documentation Centre provides services to public on a day-to-day basis. Every update local and international environmental information in diverse fields of interest is kept there by different modes such as books, booklets, leaflets, videos, CDs, posters, etc. These documents can be easily retrieved and specific information researched, by use of efficient database and filing systems which set are up by the Centre's staff. Any interested locals as well as foreigners from different walks of life can pay us a visit if ever they require any assistance for research, project or any other environmental – related activities being undertaken. Since 1997, all daily- published local news related to the environment are screened through all local papers, copied and compiled into monthly booklets entitled “Enviro-News - Press-Cuttings.” These are done by PECO's staff and are available for viewing by anyone of interest.

Education and Public Awareness Programs Public demands for a safe and healthy environment has increased significantly and environment issues have attracted public's interest. The media such as Television, Radio, Magazines, and Newspapers also lead environmental preservation campaigns. The Government has taken the initiative on environmental protection movements by increasing public awareness over environmental issues e.g. through different campaigns to celebrate under themes; Save the turtles, National Park Day, etc. The Government conducts many programs to inform the general public about environmental issues so as to encourage them to lead environmental friendly lifestyles through distribution of leaflets, articles, brochures, audio – visual information, etc.

Celebrate Environmental Theme Days The importance of environment has led to the development of many special days throughout the year that deserve to be celebrated. These are known as Environmental Theme Days and are celebrated throughout many countries around the world, which form part of Organizations such as UN, UNEP, FAO, etc. To commemorate these days, series of various activities are organized every year such as media sensitisation campaigns, rallies, marches, talks delivering, trail walks, field trips, exhibition mounting and display, competitions

80 organized and much more. Locals as well as foreigners from all walks of life are encouraged to participate.”45

b) Institutions “The Environment Department has created the Public Education and Community Outreach (PECO) Division in order to promote public education and outreach programs which will encourage greater participation and engagement of the local population at all level and this include schools, churches, and community at large. The division works closely with other governmental and non-governmental organisations to ensure that education for sustainable development is mainstreamed to the maximum in programs, project and action plans at all level. It also works collaboratively with regional and international organisations and institutions which promotes education for sustainable development or which builds the capacity of local people on sustainable development issues. With the increasing threats of climate change on the islands, the division will have to work closely with its partners to promote sustainable lifestyles, which will help to mitigate and most importantly adapt to this global threat.

The Core Functions of the Public Education and Community Outreach Division:

 To promote environmental awareness and understanding within the local community through a wide range of activities and communication tools and a well-organized and sustained community outreach program;  Undertake programs that will strategically inculcate awareness, understanding, as well as promote skills, positive attitudes, commitments, and active participation in environmental activities, through the integration of environmental concerns in the school system at all levels, government agencies, districts and private sectors;  Documents, collates, and disseminates environmental information in the form of popular information drives, media campaigns, public functions, and exhibitions;  Manage a well stock documentation centre which with access to adequate and current environmental information and publications;  Provide training for all key staff and those from other stakeholders on information dissemination and the best methods to communicate key messages to the public;

45 See http://www.env.gov.sc/index.php/2011-07-27-09-41-16/2011-07-28-07-21-05. 81

 Establish networks with a wide range of government agencies, businesses, non- government organisations and promote actively environmental awareness programs through those networks;  Develop a clear, comprehensive and integral environmental campaign, which will contribute towards sustainability within the Seychellois nation;  Raise funding and other forms of support from various sources to sustain the campaign.”46

5. South Africa, Environmental Affairs Department47

“The Department of Environmental Affairs, has welcomed the sentence against Bosveld Phosphate (PTY) Ltd in relation to environmental degradation and water offences. These charges relate to unlawfully and intentionally or negligently causing a situation in December 2013, which led to water containing polluted substances being released into the Selati River

The Olifants River eventually flows through the Kruger National Park, which is one of South Africa’s biggest drawcards for tourism. The wastewater that was released had the potential to cause serious damage, not only to the immediate environment, but also to water resources of Mozambique. Quick intervention by the authorities was therefore critical. At the time, SANParks, together with the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation, ensured that immediate measures were implemented by Bosveld to ensure that the risk to the environment was reduced. These measures included dredging the impoundment facilities to create extra storage capacity and a number of other activities in order to ensure that another spill did not occur.”48

a) Conflict prevention initiatives: Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC)

“The Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) was initiated in 2001 with a primary focus in implementing the National Waste Management Strategy. The key elements were reducing, recycling and reusing waste materials. Although the Cleanest Town Competition was fairly successful in achieving its primary objectives, developments within the greening movement

46 See http://www.env.gov.sc/index.php/2011-07-27-09-41-16/2011-07-28-07-22-08. 47 See https://www.environment.gov.za/. 48 See https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarelease/bosveldphosphateptyltd_foundguilty. 82 require the modifications of the concept to embody other elements which are outside the waste management category.

The incorporation of new elements is justifiable within a new name, hence the Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC). The Greenest Municipality Competition enhances Cleanest Town Competition by incorporating new elements and providing a broader focus. The Greenest Municipality Competition will link to other global and national initiatives, e.g. green goal, greening the nation, reducing greenhouse gases, amongst others.”49

“The Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) was officially launched in September 2001 by the then Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa. The competition is divided into two categories, namely the metropolitan and local municipality.

CTC is intended to change attitudes by raising awareness and educating communities on good waste management practices as well as to acknowledge ongoing improvements in waste management initiatives undertaken by local and metropolitan municipalities (...). The selection criteria focused on the physical conditions of municipalities and their support systems. The physical conditions aspect of the competition looked at amongst others cleanliness of commercial places, public facilities, and leisure and tourist attractions. The support systems criteria looked at waste minimization, awareness programs as well as enforcement and compliance issues.

Entrants were judged by a panel comprising of representatives from the national environment department, provincial departments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).”50

b) Sources

National Environmental Management Act, 107 of 1998 (Act no. 107 of 1998) (NEMA)51 Chapter 4 which authorizes the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms so as to ensure fair decision making and effective conflict management52.

49 See https://www.environment.gov.za/projectsprogrammes/gmc. 50 See https://www.environment.gov.za/mediastatement/nelsonmandelametro_breederiverwinelandsmunicipality_c leanesttownaward. 51 See https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/legislations/nema_amendment_act107.pdf. 52 See https://www.environment.gov.za/projectsprogrammes/environment_sectorconflict_disputeresolution. 83

c) Institutions

The Environment Sector Conflict and Dispute Resolution Directorate in the Department of Environmental Affairs.53

“The criminal prosecution was led by the Green Scorpions (Environmental Management Inspectorate, EMI) of the National Department of Environmental Affairs. The Green Scorpions are a network of environmental compliance and enforcement officials from national, provincial and municipal government, who all share the same legislative powers and duties in terms of the NEMA. EMIs are tasked with ensuring the implementation of and adherence to specific pieces of national environmental legislation.

An overview of the criminal enforcement activities for the 2012/13 period shows that a total of 1,818 arrests were made by the Green Scorpions as compared to 1,339 in the previous financial year. 1,488 criminal dockets were registered during the period in question compared to 1,080 in the 2011/12 period.”54

6. Kingdom of Swaziland, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs55

a) Conflict prevention initiatives

Swaziland has six “commemorative days”56; the World Environment Day is the most recent (June 2014):

“The 5th June World Environment Day is arranged to spread awareness worldwide and action for the environment. World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries. It also serves as the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.

53 See https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/environmental_mediation.pdf. 54 See https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarelease/necer_201213report. 55 See http://www.gov.sz/index.php?option=com_content&id=257&Itemid=207. 56 See http://www.sea.org.sz/categories.asp?cid=13. 84

The Swaziland Environment Authority in partnership with its national stakeholders joined the International community in celebrating this year’s world Environment Day on the 5th June 2014 at the Town of Siteki, Park, and East of Swaziland.

The theme for Swaziland adapted from the international theme was “Raise Your Voice Not Emissions”. The theme talks the global challenge that efforts to deal with climate change are still not enough, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at their highest for 800,000 years. Even though the international theme focuses mainly on Small Island States, the impacts of climate change on Swaziland as a small state are not different.”57

b) Institutions

The National Environment Fund

“The Swaziland National Environment Fund operates in association with local communities in different areas of Swaziland. The objective of the fund is to support the protection and conservation of the environment and to support the communities’ participation in those relating activities.

The fund approves and supports projects on communal level that needs financial funding in the work towards sustaining the local environment. Currently 15 community projects are targeted for 2014.

The Environment Fund has had a significant impact on communities where the projects have been implemented. The projects have been promoting unity within the communities, as well as empowering women in particular to take a leadership role on environmental protection. People have gathered for a united case while sacrificing their time for the local environmental issues. Awareness has been spread among communities as a positive result.

The challenges with maintaining the projects are the politics and barriers that might include possible conflicts between different parties, as well as price inflation. If environmental project is going to be successful, one important key is education. Further the ownership should belong to the communities.”58

57 See http://www.sea.org.sz/pages.asp?pid=77. 58 See http://www.sea.org.sz/pages.asp?pid=95. 85

7. Zimbabwe, Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate59

a) Conflict prevention initiatives: commemoration days

“The Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources is party to various regional and International Conventions and Agreements. As part of its obligations Zimbabwe is expected to reflect and appreciate the importance various natural resources that we have through annual commemorations. The benefit is that of improved local awareness of our natural resources and international cooperation in shared resources. The following are the major commemorations so far:

World Wetlands Day (2nd February): It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands, called Ramsar Convention, on 2nd February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. Each year, government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.

Africa Environment Day (3rd March): The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management_Information for Website_2012 Page 12 of 28 Africa Environment Day was established by the Organization of African Unity in 2002. Since that time, March 3rd has been set aside to raise awareness of the pressing environmental challenges facing the continent. Some of the biggest environmental changes facing Africa today are loss of biological diversity, climate change and desertification.

World Environment Day (5th June): An annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. World Environment Day activities take place all year round and climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere. The World Environment Day celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

59 See http://www.environment.gov.zw/. 86

Biodiversity Day (22nd May): The day to appreciate biodiversity and the need to conserve and sustainably utilize it. Desertification Day (17th June) Set aside to reflect on the threat of desertification resulting from our actions and the need to combat it.

Ozone day (16th September): on 16th September 1987, 24 Parties signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. In 1998, in recognition of the Protocol's unique accomplishments, the General Assembly in its Resolution 49/114 named 16th September as the International day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. Since that time, the Parties have used this day to celebrate the signing of the Montreal Protocol, and the significant environmental and health benefits that this amazing treaty has yielded.

National fire Week (2nd Week of May): Week set aside to encourage Zimbabweans to stop uncontrolled burning and adopt fire suppression measures.

National Tree Planting Day (1 Sat of every December): President Mugabe leads the nation in tree planting as a way to encourage every Zimbabwean to plant trees.”60

*The views and opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

60 See http://www.environment.gov.zw/index.php/about-us/commemorations. 87